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Older Electra

translated from the Swedish by Johannes Göransson

The great tit chirps in the january darkness 
Or sparrows Girls I don’t know Just sounds 
They suggest hope 
Do the dead forget to die in the dark 
All kinds of people take deep breaths 
They shouldn’t chirp 
Birds make patterns of sound 
Inside and outside my head 
My brain is dragged like stones 
Dragged by ox children up a mountain 
Stones buried in cliffs of snow 
I have waited in the scant night 
I can wait without light or children 
We always cry too late, it is said, 
and always sing too soon

 


 

Äldre Elektra

 

Talgoxen kvittrar i januarimörkret 
Eller sparvarna Flickorna Jag vet inte Ljud bara 
Glömmer de döda att dö i mörkret 
Alla möjliga människor andas tungt 
De måste inte kvittra 
Mönstret av fåglar låter 
Inuti och utanför huvudet 
Hjärnan släpas som stenar 
Dragna av oxbarn uppför ett berg 
Stenar begravda i klippor i snö 
Jag har väntat i den glesa natten 
Jag kan vänta utan ljus och barn 
Man gråter alltid försent, sägs det 
och sjunger alltid för tidigt

Copyright © 2026 by Jenny Tunedal, translated by Johannes Göransson. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 15, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets.

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About Poem-a-Day

Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. Maya C. Popa is the Guest Editor for September. Read or listen to a Q&A with Maya about her curatorial process, and learn more about the 2026 Guest Editors. Support Poem-a-Day.  

If you have any questions about Poem-a-Day, visit our Poem-a-Day FAQ.

Previous Poems

Title Author Date
Death as a Way of Life [We wonder at our shifting capacities, keep] Anna Moschovakis
Come Up From the Fields Father Walt Whitman
Meanwhile the elephants Mark Wagenaar
Prayer of the Backhanded Jericho Brown
Origins [The Flowering Breaker Detonates Its Surf] (audio only) Derek Walcott
Freeway 280 Lorna Dee Cervantes
Saving Memory Mary Stewart Hammond
The Black Madonna Albert Rice
Humanimal [Feral children are fatty] Bhanu Kapil
The Carrying Ada Limón

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