ISAK'S POEM

ISAK DINESEN, WHO GAVE HER SOUL TO THE DEVIL ...

“Having found my soul an encumbrance I could not

Simply give it to the servants to dispose of. Imagine

Riding through Copenhagen and coming upon one’s soul

Dozing in the sun near the harbor! Worse, suppose my cousins

Got hold of it and set it in a field to scare crows? Scarred I may be --

No. Scarred I am beyond denial but pride I have still.

Some rules still apply; a lady – still less a Baroness –

Does not engage in barter. The only course, I saw,

Was to give my soul away. We are a small country

Hell does not maintain an embassy here; the Belgians,

For a fee, represent its interests. I stopped by one autumn day

And filled out the usual forms, using the space left

To indicate the seller’s requested price to write

‘Free-will donation.’ This upset the clerk, did I know

He asked, his left eye burning, how valuable a soul was?

How hard to replace? He stopped just short of calling me a fool

(I can do the blazing eye trick too) and asked me to reconsider

And fill in a price.

                        “ My dear man – if that’s what you are –

My ancestors were thieves and plunderers. They murdered;

They broke oaths; they had cold hearts and deep thirsts

And gripped hard what came their way. But they were not

Traders; no more am I. If you don’t want my soul

Say so, and I will give it to the Church or find a way

To drown it fathoms deep.’ He shrugged finally

And said I should come back; he would meanwhile

Contact his home office. As I left I could hear my soul

Thinking unkind thoughts of me.

“Three weeks and a day later I returned. A tall old man

Whom I had seen at my sisters’ parties was there. As much

As was anyone, he said, he was the Devil. (When I was six

My governess had made me learn proper forms of address.

A bishop is ‘Your Worship,’ the Emperor of China is
‘Most Serene Altitude.” The Devil is ‘Your Dread Eminence’

And is always called upon to chose the first dance

When he attends balls in his proper person.) “I am honored,

Baroness; few there are who make gifts to me. The necessities

Of my position have made me a commercial traveller

Living in a world of shrewd bargaining. One grows hard.”

“No one,” I told him “thinks any the less of you for it.

Whatever else he is, all know the Devil is a gentleman.”

“Ah, you make me two gifts; I am pleased with them both.

You have my gratitude.” Save for a few remarks about the weather

And a desire that I remember him to my sister

That was the end of our meeting.

                       

                                        “It was some years before I realized

That there had been an exchange of gifts. I remain nearsighted

But stopped walking into things and can pick out

Even now, when I am as old as time (but less nimble),

A four leafed clover from the midst of a large meadow.

I am the first to spy a new moon; I sleep well

And all that has happened to me since that day

I have been able to turn into a story.”