The spring has arrived very early this year in Toronto. We have had so such gorgeous weather with buds and flowers blooming. This weather reminds me of one of my favorite poems by Swedish poet, Karin Boye. “Ja visst gör det ont”. It is a very well known poem in Scandinavia that I think captures how nature connects us with life. Perhaps in a slightly melancholy way but it also gives us hope. Enjoy, and happy Spring !
Of Course It Hurts
Of course it hurts when buds burst.
Otherwise why would spring hesitate?
Why would all our fervent longing
be bound in the frozen bitter haze?
The bud was the casing all winter.
What is this new thing, which consumes and bursts?
Of course it hurts when buds burst,
pain for that which grow
and for that which envelops.
Of course it is hard when drops fall.
Trembling with fear they hang heavy,
clinging on the branch, swell and slide -?
the weight pulls them down, how they cling.
Hard to be uncertain, afraid and divided,
hard to feel the deep pulling and calling,
yet sit there and just quiver —
hard to want to stay
and to want to fall.
Then, at the point of agony and beyond all help,
the tree’s buds burst as if in jubilation,
then, when fear no longer exists,
the branch’s drops tumble in a shimmer,
forgetting that they were afraid of the new,
forgetting that they were fearful of the journey —
feeling for a second their greatest security,
resting in the trust
that creates the world.
-Karin Boye 1935
