Gåvan Rent Ut

Översättning av
Anders G.J. Rhodin, 2016

Landet var vårt, innan vi var landets.
Hon var vårt land i mer än hundra år
Innan vi var hennes folk. Hon var vårt
I Massachusetts, i Virginia,
Men vi var Englands, ännu kolonister,
Ägande det vi inte ännu ägdes av,
Ägda av det vi nu inte längre ägde.
Något som vi höll undan gjorde oss svaga
Tills vi förstod att det var oss själva
Vi höll undan från vårt levnadsland,
Och fann omedelbar frälsning i kapitulering.
Så som vi var gav vi oss själva rent ut
(Den stordådsgåvan var många krigsdåd)
Till landet som vagt realiserade sig västerut,
Men ännu obeskrivit, konstlöst, oförbättrat,
Så som hon var, så som hon skulle bli.

The Gift Outright

Robert Frost, [1935] 1942

The land was ours before we were the land’s.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England’s, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.