un-heard of thing

.

That morning I heard water being poured into a teapot.

The sound was an ordinary, daily, cluffy sound.

But all at once, I knew you loved me.

An unheard-of thing, love audible in water falling. 

—Robert Bly

 .

speech but now words

 

.

Being tired of people who come with words, but no speech,

I made my way to the snow-covered island.

The wild does not have words.

The pages free of handwriting stretched out on all sides!

I came upon the tracks of reindeer in the snow.

 Speech but no words.

—Tomas Gösta Tranströmer

Robert Bly version

from The Half-Finished Heaven

.

the whole moisty night

  

.

The Viking ship sails into the full harbor.

The body meets its wife far out at sea.

Its lamp remains lit the whole moisty night.

Water pours down, faint flute notes in 

the sound of the water.

—Robert Bly

.