För dagen läser vi en svensk Nobelpristagares verk, Pär Lagerkvists ”Aftonland” eller ”Evening Land” i WH Audens utmärkta översättning från 1953. Lagerkvist har på falska grunder ansetts för att vara kristen, men det är fel i sak. Han var hedning som vi, och Asatroende – för han förstod vad Odin eller Oden är och var, han insåg sakens kärna. Han såg in i framtiden, Europas framtid, 2025…2026… och än vidare…

Hör bara:

I am the one who goes on
when you remain behind.

The one who steps out into the night
when you retire to rest.

The one who opens the gate into the darkness
and goes further.
Into the darkness and the stars
and walks even further.

On an uncertain path,
a path which perhaps does not exist,
I forsake you.

This is the spirit of the Hávamál. This is Wothan, and his words. Not mine.

The spear has been cast and will never fly back.
Glowing, its holy arc will traverse the darkness.

With its glowing point it is cast forth
for ever and ever
and unborn hearts wait to be pierced by it.

The spear is cast forth for ever and ever.

Whose hand hurled the spear ?

Who is the spear-caster ?

Someone must have cast it,
and judging from its power, it must have been a mighty hand…

Throw open your house unto me
Open all doors and gates unto me
For I shall enter, like the storm wind.

When I come, there will no loger be room for you.
You shall live in the wilderness like an outcast
For I shall drive you out into the wilderness
and you shall lie naked in the wilderness underneath the stars.

But in the house which has been yours, I shall live.
I shall fill it with my presence.

He is not his shadow
But his shadow became the light in our tents
that night, we could sleep no more.

May my heart’s disquiet never vanish
May I never be at peace.
May I never be reconciled to life, nor to death either.

May my path be unending, with death its unknowable goal.