The poem is Till förruttnelsen (Ode to Putrefaction) by Swedish poet Erik Johan Stagnelius (1793-1823). I will post both the Swedish original and an English translation. I made the translation myself, so it’s not an official English version in any way, and there might be mistakes in it. I tried to stay as close to the original as I could, rather than interpreting it, but the original is written in a way that it still lends itself very well to an almost literal translation.
av Erik Johan Stagnelius
Förruttnelse, hasta, o älskade brud, att bädda vårt ensliga läger!
Förskjuten av världen, förskjuten av Gud, blott dig till förhoppning jag äger.
Fort, smycka vår kammar — på svartklädda båren den suckande älskarn din boning skall nå.
Fort, tillred vår brudsäng — med nejlikor våren skall henne beså.
Slut ömt i ditt sköte min smäktande kropp!
Förkväv i ditt famntag min smärta.
I maskar lös tanken och känslorna opp, i aska mitt brinnande hjärta.
Rik är du, o Flicka! — i hemgift du giver den stora, den grönskande jorden åt mig.
Jag plågas här uppe, men lycklig jag bliver där nere hos dig.
Till vällustens ljuva, förtrollande kvalm oss svartklädda brudsvenner följa.
Vår bröllopssång ringes av klockornas malm, och gröna gardiner oss dölja.
När stormarne ute på världshavet råda,
när fasor den blodade jorden bebo, när fejderna rasa, vi slumra dock båda i gyllene ro.
-----o0o-----
By Erik Johan Stagnelius
Putrefaction, Oh beloved bride, make haste our solitary bed to prepare!
Rejected by the world, rejected by God, but to you I still have hope.
Make haste; adorn our chambers — on the black clothed stretcher the sighing lover your dwelling shall reach.
Make haste, prepare our bridal bed — spring will sow carnations on it.
Embrace tenderly in your lap my languishing body!
In your embraces suffocate my pain.
Dissolve my thoughts and my feelings into worms, singe my burning heart into cinder.
You have such wealth, Oh girl! — as endowment you give the great, the luscious, ample, green earth to me.
I’m tormented up here, but happy I will be down there with thee.
To voluptuous, delicious, enchanting qualms, black-dressed bridesmaids will us follow.
Our wedding-songs are sung by the toll of bells and green drapes will conceal us.
When storms are raging over the oceans of the world, when horrors dwell on a blood-drenched earth,
as the world is raging, the both of us slumber in golden peace.
---
The only place where I changed things a bit was in the piece with the bridesmaids, in the original it’s really boys, and not maids, who follow the bride and groom, but I couldn’t find an English word that fit. The bolded part is the part I used on the ATC.
Source:
http://studio-m.livejournal.com/8770.html
