LATE ARRIVAL ON EARTH
(1932)
FERRYMAN'S SONG (1941)
NON SERVIAM (1945)
STROUNTES (1955)
GUIDE TO THE
UNDERWORLD (1967)
I BELIEVE IN INDIVIDUAL MAN HIMSELF
I believe in individual man himself,
in him who walks by himself,
not doglike following his scent,
not wolflike fleeing before man’s scent:
at once man and anti-man.
Come to our own communion?
Flee the over and the outer way:
Whatever is cattle in others is cattle also in you.
Walk the wide and inner way:
What is bottom in you is bottom also in them.
Hard to get used to oneself.
Hard to break oneself of oneself.
The one who does that shall never be cast out.
The one who does that shall forever be buit in.
The impractical is the only practical
in the long run.
Selected poems of Gunnar Ekelöf. Translated by Muriel Rukeyser and Leif Sjöberg. Twaine Publishers, New York, 1967, p. 60
