Tag: Sweden

Daily Haibun, August 20th – Travel plans

Today, for the first time since the pandemic started I’ve made travel plans. Not abroad, just another city. But by now that feels like a grand adventure. To add to the excitement I’ll get to meet new people. The others in one of my creative writing classes. Right now I feel as giddy and nervous as the first time I went on a longer trip alone. It’s surprising how quickly, I mean it’s just under two years, I went from one traveling frequently to one totally home bound.

As autumn winds blow

Time’s come to change, learn and grow

Travel with the flow

©RedCat

Read other Haibun’s written for the monthly dVerse prompt by me here.

Read other Daily Haibun’s here.

Image credits:

First image: Photo by Roland Lösslein on Unsplash
Second image: Sakletare, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Third image: Johan Jönsson (Julle), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Forth image: Image by David Castor (user:dcastor). (All users photos are placed in Category:Images by David Castor or a subcategory thereof.), CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

6

Daily Haibun, June 26th – Birdsong

trevor pye on Unsplash

It might be nearing midnight. But outside the birds are still singing. Filling the bright night with sounds.

The nighttime birdsong
Fills the midsummer bright night
The sound of solstice

© RedCat

Rainhard Wiesinger on Unsplash

Read other Haibun’s written for the monthly dVerse prompt by me here.

Read other Daily Haibun’s here.

0

Midsummer Night Full Moon

Midnight midsummer moon rise
Stockholm, Sweden
©RedCat

Midsummer night full moon
Do you hear the alluring tune
The caressing song of a full moon in June

Shining her golden light
In the pale summer night
Beacon to the dancing witch’s sight

Touching on bare skin
Kindling creative passion within
Letting the dream visions begin

Her visit might be short
Just long enough to lead the way to fairy court
Get a glimpse of a soul’s consort

After that the soul will know
Recognize the shared inner glow
The love who’ll allow you to grow

Under midsummer’s full moon
A witch might find her soul’s tune
The one that to natures ebb and flow attune

©RedCat
Örebro, Sweden
Photo by Philip Myrtorp on Unsplash

The night before Midsummer’s Eve the moon rose full and golden. Adding to the already otherworldly quality of Nordic midsummer night. I just had to write something before I could go to sleep.

My photo is cropped, but not edited or taken with night setting. Meaning this is how bright a cloudy overcast midnight is here this time of year.

This year I’ve written several Midsummer poems;
Æsir Solstice Sunrise, Guarded By The Unicorn and Midsummer Frenzy.
And numerous Daily Haibuns.

Midnight Sun, Nykvåg, Norway
Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash

Also linked to earthweal open link weekend #72.

5

Daily Haibun, June 25th – On the Eve

© RedCat

In Sweden we celebrate on the eve of a coming holiday. Meaning we celebrate Midsummers eve, Christmas eve the 24th of December and Easter eve.

The explanation for this might go back to the time before mechanical clocks, when sunset signalled a new day, not midnight. Which makes sense in a setting with less changes in length of daylight than the far north.

So today been full of Midsummer Eve celebrations and smörgåsbord laden with food.

Why wait for sunrise
Begin the celebration
On the eve of things

© RedCat

Read other Haibun’s written for the monthly dVerse prompt by me here.

Read other Daily Haibun’s here.

0

Midsummer Poppies (2020 Re-post)

© RedCat

When dusk is night long
Lasting until dawn
Poppies vibrant song
Siren fey dreams spawn

Thrumming in the veins
Passion’s deep well
Growing like the grains
By hypnotic smell

Hear Midsummer’s call
Wonders fill your heart
Feel the fire of Sol
Drink her heedy quart

Frolic and feel joy
Bathe in love’s red lust
Freedom life buoy
By starlight souls trust

Bask in Everglow
Caressed by the breeze
Rest content below
Midsummer poppies

© REDCAT
© RedCat

Re-post comment:

Midsummer is drawing nearer each day. So it felt fitting to share this poem for tonight’s Wandering the Archives Wednesday.

Nights are magical right now. The light is otherworldly. Flowers shine with their own light and lend a seducing perfume to the air.

Read more about the Goddess Sól (Norse Mythology) on Wikipedia.

Photo by Freddie Ramm on Pexels.com

Also linking to Tuesday Writing Prompt Challenge at Go Dog Go Café.

1

Den blomstertid nu kommer – Saturday Song

Den blomstertid nu kommer, sung by Uppsala Mission Church Chamber Choir

This weekend’s song is a Swedish hymn that for many years has signaled the start of summer for school children and their parents. One I heard people say they wished we had gotten to hear sung, as we once again had a school term end without parents in attendance due to the pandemic. 

Den blomstertid nu kommer (literally: Now the time of blossoming arrives) was first published in the 1695 Swedish Hymnal. And has been rewritten several times since. It is popular in both Sweden and Finland.

According to Wikipedia there is an English translation from 1978, but I fail to find the text online. Another text I should give time and thought  to translating. 

The first verse, where the Christian origin is not apparent, speaks of the time for flowers coming, the sweet summer approaching where grass and crops grow, the sun’s gentle and lively warmth reawakening the seemingly dead nature.

Den blomstertid nu kommer

Verse 1-3 of 6
1937 Lyrics 

1.

Den blomstertid nu kommer
med lust och fägring stor.
Du nalkas, ljuva sommar,
då gräs och gröda gror.
Med blid och livlig värma
till allt som varit dött,
sig solens strålar närma,
och allt blir återfött.

2.

De fagra blomsterängar
och åkerns ädla säd,
de rika örtesängar
och lundens gröna träd,
de skola oss påminna
Guds godhets rikedom,
att vi den nåd besinna
som räcker året om.

3.

Man hörer fåglar sjunga
med mångahanda ljud,
skall icke då vår tunga
lovsäga Herren Gud?
Min själ, upphöj Guds ära,
stäm upp din glädjesång
till den som vill oss nära
och fröjda på en gång!

Wikisource
Den blomstertid nu kommer, sung by Täby music classes
Den blomstertid nu kommer, sung in Öjaby Church, Växjö parish, recorded by Stacke Media
0

Daily Haibun, June 10th – Soaked

Photo by Ruslan Zh on Unsplash

Early in the afternoon I decided that tabbouleh and halloumi would be dinner. Also I wanted some wine, so I set out to the best fruit and vegetable shop close by, which also happens to be near a Systembolaget (explanation below). After the shopping was done the first raindrops fell. Within a minute, heaven’s doors opened, as the Swedish saying goes, and torrential rain fell. As I was less than a kilometer from home I decided to leg it instead of trying to hide under a tree or overpass. Getting really soaked at least once per summer in a thunderstorm rain, especially when dry clothes and warmth are within reach, is just a part of life. And one of those that makes you feel alive. It was raining hard enough that it was hard to see, and within minutes I was soaked through and through.

Heaven’s doors opened
Thundercrack, lightning flash, rain
Soaking everything

©RedCat

In Sweden the state has a monopoly on selling alcohol, surprising more than one uninformed tourist. So anything stronger than medium-strong beer has to be sold at Systembolaget that have reduced opening hours compared to other stores that in any other country would have sold wine and spirits.

Read other Haibun’s written for the monthly dVerse prompt by me here.

Read other Daily Haibun’s here.

Interior of the cashiering area of a Systembolaget store with counter service in Växjö, c. 1916.
Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

1

Website Built with WordPress.com.

Up ↑