Archive > Vol. 9 no. 2
Tarjei Vesaas
Where the Fire Burned
Translated from the Norwegian by Roger Greenwald
Beside the long gray road:
the ashes of burned-out fires
and signs of departure
in dust and heat.
That’s all.
But the fire that burned
in the circle of wanderers
faded only from sight,
its longing unquenched.
They wandered for a dream,
could give without limit
and had to go farther, searching
and restless,
and the blaze keeps burning
on every horizon,
while new seekers dig in the ashes
and in the ground under the ashes,
and it’s the dream that is
the wanderer's reward.