A Solitary Ski-track

A solitary ski-track trying

To escape to the forests’ deep,

A solitary ski-track winding

Away over ridge and steep,

Over marshes harried by blizzards

Where squat pines stand in sparse array —

It is my mind’s thoughts stealing

Further and further away.

A frozen ski-track vanishing

In the forest’s lonely rows,

A human lifetime dwindling

On paths that no one knows —

Far away they are, the answers

To the questions my heart nursed —

My wandering has been a winding

Across the snow’s white crust.

A solitary ski-track ending

At a sudden precipice

Where wind-torn firs are stooping

Over the edge of the cliffs —

How coldly the stars are blinking,

How shadowed the forest looks,

How lightly the snowflakes are falling

Over the snow-covered tracks.

Poem by Bertel Gripenberg