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TOMTEN
Midwinternight frost is hard and deep
The stars are sparkling bright
In lonely farm all things sleep
Through the murmurs of midwinters night
The moon walks along her silent ways
Snow shines white on pine and spruce
Snow shines white on rooftops
Only Tomten is awake.
Standing grey at the barn door
Grey against the white snow drift
Looking as in many winters before
Up over at the moons disc
Looks across the forest where spruce and
pine
Draw round the yard in their dark wall
Pondering, although he can't divine,
The most curious riddle of all.
Running his hands through hair and beard
He shakes his head and hood
No, the riddle is far too hard I fear
No, I can't answer, I wish I could
Quickly, as he is his habit, brushing
Such questioning thoughts away
onto arranging and rushing
to his chores without delay
To the storehouse and the tool shed
trying all the locks
sleeping under the moonlight
he grain dreams summer dreams in the bin
forgetting harness, whip and rein
the horse in the stall has also a dream
the feed crib he leans over
filling up on its sweet clover
Going to the pen for lamb and sheep
Seeing how they, there inside, sleep
Going to the chickens where the rooster
Stands proudly on his high perch
Karo in his dogbed of straw feels good
He wakes and wags his tail a little
Karo his Tomten he knows
They are good friends
Tomten steals at last a look
To the farm folk he loves
Long and well he marks that they
Hold his industry in respect
The children's bedroom he last on tiptoe
Draws near to see the little sweet ones
No one senses anything is amiss
That is his greatest talent
So he has seen them father and son
Pure in so many ways
Sleeping like children but why
Do they truly come down here?
Family followed on family soon
Blossomed, withered and gone but where?
The riddle which can't be solved
Comes back again
Tomten wanders to the barns loft
There has he lived and prospered
High in the hay loft in the hay's sweet scent
Alongside the swallow's nest
Now the swallow's bode is empty
But in Spring with blade and bloom
She shall surely return again
Followed by her pretty spouse
There has she always to the chirping
Of the many a journey's memory
Not unlike the riddle which
Winds itself in Tomten spirit
Through in the barn wall a chink
Moonlight shines on the old man's beard
Ribbons on the beard twinkling
Tomten broods and thinks
Silent is the forest and all about
Life out there is frozen
Only from afar the waterfalls rush
Is heard in gentle roar
Tomten listens half in dream
Believes he hears time's flowing
Wondering where it has come
Wondering where it is all going.
Midwinternight frost is hard and deep
The stars are sparkling bright
In lonely farm all things sleep
Well until the morning's light
The moon sinks in ther silent path
The snow shines white on pine and spruce
The snow shines white on the rooftops
Only Tomten is awake.
Viktor Rydberg
Translation: Bob Anderson, New York
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