Poetry

 

Li Ti's Advice

If you own two coppers, said Li-Ti on a journey,
buy one loaf of bread and one blossom.
The bread is there to fill you
The blossom you buy is to tell you
that life is worth the living.

 

By Harry Martinson
From Gräsen i Thule, 1958
Translated by Stephen Klass

Published with the permission of Eva Martinson