By Sidsel Mørck
Blue is our only heaven
Green is our only earth.
Our only future is dark
And now is for making our mark.
We know all we need and more
Of the folly of bygone days:
They chopped down forests with axes
And topsoil was washed off and blew away.
All for a short-lived profit
Leaving the scars
To which we are heirs.
We know all we need and more
About using more dangerous tools,
But our folly matches their.
We don` t want to know that gains
Can be losses in future years,
That prosperity can cause pains
And success can poison our heirs.
We don’t want to see
That piling more riches and riches
Impoverishes the earth
We don`t want to hear
The future weeping
Through riot and mirth.
Borrowing, bying and selling
In markeds run by thieves
We are robbing ourselves and humanity`s home.
No sponsors pay to see
A lake, a peak, a tree.
But ever-approashing desert
Will force us to understand:
The time is short, time is short,
Every night marks the death of a day
And the trial begins tomorrow.
All of us are guilty
No one can go free.
What will our legacy be?
Blue is our only heaven
Green is our only earth.
Our only future is dark
And now is for making our mark!
/
Translated by Peter Bilton.
This poem was originally written for a Norwegian TV-documentary on the Brundtland Commission and is the Norwegian contribution to the anthology Masterworks of Man and Nature:Preserving Our World Heritage (1992).
Sidsel Mørck (born 1937) is a Norwegian lyricist and novelist and the author of 40 books. She made her literary debut in 1967 with the poetry collection Et ødselt sekund. Mørck was awarded the Mads Wiel Nygaards Endowment in 1976. She has also received the Fritt Ord Honorary Award in 1990 and the Ossietzky-prize from Norwegian P.E.N in 2013.
KLIMAAKSJON / NORWEGIAN WRITERS´ CLIMATE CAMPAIGN // NWCC 