by Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld (1905 - 1961)
Translation by Leif Sjöberg (1925 - 2000)
Thus It Was
Language: English  after the Swedish (Svenska)
I am being driven forward, into an unknown land. The ground becomes harder, the air colder and sharper. Touched by the wind from my unknown goal strings are trembling in [their] waiting. Still having questions I will arrive, where (the tone of) life dies away — a clear simple note in the silence. Smiling, candid, unbribable — the body restrained and free. A man who became what he could and was what he was — always ready to gather everything in one simple sacrifice. Tomorrow we will meet, death and I — He will thrust his rapier into a man who is awake. But how does not the memory of every moment that I wasted sting me.
Confirmed with Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings, trans. Leif Sjöberg and W.H. Auden., London : Faber and Faber, 1964
Text Authorship:
- by Leif Sjöberg (1925 - 2000), "Thus It Was", subtitle: "1925-1930" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Swedish (Svenska) by Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld (1905 - 1961), appears in Vägmärken [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
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Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2026-03-04
Line count: 15
Word count: 117