translated from the Swedish by Johannes Göransson

from The Angelgreen Sacrament

The illuminated cranium which glows green

and without light

would never melt into my wing

lies on the first step of the stairs : your sacrament :

the midsummersolstice's pistachiogreen angel

pistachiogreen body, born wings

of no one more than no one

are so light      disappear   in light

            never      die

            are never      born

                      are

               light

            nothing other than light

are so light      disappear in light

            die          always

            are born          always

                        are

                 light

live on nothing

are born from nothing            live on nothing

            die of

            nothing

angelgreen wings

            carry

           the body

          the cranium

 – Don't be afraid

            be afraid

            don't be afraid

            You are afraid

            the cranium

I have taken off the cranium

have you taken off the wings

have you taken off the wings

and given them to me, have you taken me off

have I taken off your wings

but we are only your wings

there are no garments

only the garment

the stair step

how it submerges itself in

the wings

step down into the reflection

stepping down

raised chasm

steps

wingsteps

– the times the angelgreen drapes the stone steps over my shoulders

You open the stone and lay me open

Angel mounted in stone

angel mounted in cranium

the pistachiogreen body and the wings’ brighter screams

is your fear visibility’s living nothing

this green light

the living and the dead

births a rising light

it shows nothing

this nothing which you love

this which shows its nothing

I am coming to you

don't be afraid

you are afraid

now I'm taking the first step

now I'm standing on the first step

Angelgreen wings, the light dissolves the angelgreen

dissolved wing

in light, that wing's nothing : that wing's angelgreen

light, only in nothing

angel, only in nothing

wings in nothing

Angel !

I don't know who births you

birthed out of the same space : space

                        eye

same water and slits

a handful of angels, the crossed

through wings of light in nothing

only light which is carried by wings

            eyewings

in now lighter darkness : toward the disappearing

when no one knows, only     you     wings

over my hand   in    my hand     out  of

nothing     grows     our     angel

– I came to earth to see pearlhyacinths

Angels     hereangels born from nothing

in the inbetweenspace   between   light and light

home of angels, your   home    your    light

            is nothing-   light

more  wing   wings   more     more rush

                        in light

disappear

                        die

                                    in light

            the nothingwing

the nothinglight

light     so     the light     is the brightening

            light in no one

            no one in light

            carry light

            be light

            no one

                        be this

upturn in light

infly   in   light

            fly in light

                                    fly

                        angelfly

                        out

from the cold and nothing

            into          the wait

                        hope

                        die

                        you are

with an angel hanging from your hand

hang the wings across the back

hang nothing across the back

lie on the second step: your sacrament :

your hair

my hair

your hairy wing my hairy wings

nothing across the back only

your step which splits the back into

nothing

wings in nothing

only hair

now

always

never wholly

nothing

you see my nothing

that which turns fully from fully green

open

angelrose

if no one birthed you when no one birthed you

you vibrate between angel and rose

but if you do not birth me you are my

sacrament which takes me up the stairs

to the sacrament of every step

I see your eye

see you now

Eva Kristina Olsson (b. 1958) is the author of several books of poetry and plays,
as well as a dancer, performer and filmmaker. She has published many books,
including The Crime (1988), Eiderwhite (2011), the verse plays Antigone’s Face /
Niobe’s Labyrinth (2013), and has had a major impact on Swedish poetry over the
past three decades. This excerpt is the first few pages of her critically acclaimed
book The Angelgreen Sacrament (2017), which Aase Berg called “torturously
beautiful … the best poetry collection of the year” in Dagens Nyheter. 



Born in Lund, Sweden, Johannes Göransson now lives in South Bend, Indiana,
where he teaches at the University of Notre Dame. He’s the author of eight books,
including POETRY AGAINST ALL, The Sugar Book and Transgressive Circulations:
Essays on Translation, and the translator of several poets, including Aase Berg,
Ann Jäderlund, Helena Boberg and Kim Yideum.