If a proper anger

Erik Axel Karlfeldt

From the poetry collection Fridolin's Garden and Valley Paintings in Rhyme (1901).

Put your hand heavily and firmly on the table 
and like a lion royal roar, 
and say the right, certain word 
manly without ostentation and boasting. 
A man is beautiful when he is angry, 
but wet and mealy he is mean, 
and cold and whining is a woman's way of life 

In this world of smooth bumps 
who smile and bow for a penny, 
you lace your words with broddar 
and speech healthy and true. 
In this world, so brazen and stupid, 
may much wrath have place, 
and it's a shame to be lukewarm. 

A man is but a nor'easter 
that blows up into fierce battle, 
and than a west wind that enters 
among men infinitely gentle. 
So other men follow his trail, 
and children and women, wherever he goes, 
stand secure in their weak spring. 

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