Song of Sorrow

The Child

The one in me who was so confident

Comes meeting me in the borderland of death

A smile of pure trust

Reaching wide arms towards me

And I say

There is nothing to worry about

Do you see

How the sun is shining

And the birds sing so beautifully for you

And I will take you by the hand, little child

We are going to walk a bit

Over the meadows and the ground

And if the way is winding and tangled

And the stones big and too many

And we fall, you and me

We will rise again

And go on

Go on

Still

It will be night sometimes

Dark sometimes

It may happen that we don’t find the way

But it does not matter

I hold you by the hand

So that nothing bad can happen to you

You see

The world is vast

Exciting and dangerous

But beautiful too

And mild

And we will go on in it

You and me

We will go to another land

I don’t know very well

What it looks like

But I imagine

That it is beautiful there

It is a land

Where no questions are being asked

Because the answers are already there

It is a land

Where rest is bright and happy

Because no tiredness

Was ever there

It is a land where peace of mind

Is light-handed

Not heavy,

Like the balm of suffering

And in that land

We will forget the journey we made

If it was easy or hard

Heavy

Evil

And we will very surely forget

What it was we left behind

You

My little child

We are going home

I hold myself crying

By the hand.

© Anna Wahlgren