SILTI
Kuinka tarkkaan elämä vie kaiken ajan!
Tämän tästä hänen on oltava siellä,
toisen tuolla,
ties missä,
kaikki on hoidettava,
järjestettävä,
jokainen velvollisuus täytettävä,
sillä huonolla omallatunnolla
on mahdoton
rakastaa.
Ja kun lopulta koittaa taas yhteinen hetki,
vanhat velvollisuudet eivät noin vain suostu unohtumaan
ja uudet alkavat jo asettua taloksi mieleen.
Ja aina on ja on ollut näin;
oli kevät,
tuli kesä,
meni talvi,
kiireessä on mahdoton kunnolla rakastaa,
kului vuosia,
yhä useammat asiat
alkoivat olla tapahtuneet jo vuosia sitten.
Ja silti on aikaa koko se elämä
joka niin tarkkaan vie kaiken ajan.
Aikaa rakastaa minkä ehtii.
YET
How life takes up all your time!
One of you has to be there,
The other somewhere else,
who knows where.
Everything must be managed,
organized,
every obligation fulfilled,
because with a bad conscience
it is impossible
to love.
And when finally a shared moment comes again,
the old responsibilities won’t just agree to be forgotten
while the new ones are already making themselves at home in your head.
It has always been like this.
There was spring,
summer came,
winter passed.
It’s impossible to love properly in a hurry.
Years passed,
more and more things
started happening years ago.
And yet there is time for all that life
that takes up so much time.
Love the time you have time for.
Source: Hannu Salakka, Kuin unessa viipyen (Otava, 1990), p. 511. Image courtesy of Amazon.in. Translated by Living in FIN
Living in FIN 
Great to see some Hannu Salakka. I agree that he is quite unduly forgotten, even if his poetry is quite accessible and could also talk to many people that aren’t perhaps that much into poetry. I see some similarities between him and Raymond Carver, the bleakness and simplicity of saying. Very Finnish though in his profound feeling of isolation.
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Thanks for your comment, Mikko! You’re absolutely right that Salakka’s poetry is super accessible, and your comparison of him with Raymond Carver is incredibly apt. (And makes me want to re-read Carver.) You’ll be happy to know that I just finished another translation and will post it on this website later today.
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