SKULLS

Eino Leino(1878-1926)

Now melts the crust of snow, leaves the ice,

from the swamp skulls are sneering,

they from each other ask:

- "Man of what foreign land you are?"

They don't each other know,

but all death harvested,

now all are alike:

- "You I don't know, you don't know me."

- "I for the land of my birth fought."

- "I reached for heroic glory."

- "I for the sake of humanity struck."

- "I ate the private's bread."

Swamp melts, snowdrifts dwindle,

skulls sink into mud,

only bubbles from here to there go,

soon none of them shows.

Pääkallot has been translated from the collection Elämän koreus(1915)

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