With Eyes Sensitive To Green

I saw a documentary a few days ago about Barbro Hörberg, a Swedish singer-songwriter who was very popular when I was little. She died in 1976 from breast-cancer, only 43 years old. She was on television a lot, and as we only had two channels at the time, she was very hard to miss. I also remember how disturbing it was that she died, how sad it was. I find it hard to stop thinking about her now.

This is probably her most famous song, certainly everyone my age and older remembers it, "Med ögon känsliga för grönt" (= with eyes sensitive to green). The music was written by Nils Hansén. (This clip from a television performance was put on Youtube by Lennart Ljung. The song begins around 2:25.)

Och tänk i parken, om våren  /  And imagine, in the park, in springtime
Med ögon känsliga för grönt  /  With eyes sensitive to green
Och kastanjeblad som paraplyer  /  And chestnut leaves like umbrellas
Och våra händer känsliga för allt som är skönt  /  And our hands, sensitive to all that´s beatiful

Vi vek en duva av papper  /  We folded a bird from a piece of paper
I vinden seglade den långt  /  It sailed far in the wind
Och den landade på en staty som  /  And it landed on a statue that
Fick ändra alla orden i sin sång  /  Had to change all the words in its song

Det regnade, men bilderna blev bra  /  It rained, but the pictures turned out well
Det var ett egendomligt ljus den dan  /  It was a strange light that day
Vi fyllde våra ögon                           / We filled our eyes
Med ljuset och tankarna på allt det nya  /  With light and thoughts of all that´s new

Och tänk i parken, om våren  /  And imagine, in the park, in springtime
Med ögon känsliga för grönt  /  With eyes sensitive to green
Och kastanjeblad som paraplyer  /  And chestnut leaves like umbrellas
Jag älskade dig då, det gör jag nu  /  I loved you then, I love you now

(translated by me, quick and dirty)