Önskan by Karin Boye Oh let me live truly and truly die but once, so that I brush against reality in evil and in good. And let me be still and cherish all that I see, so that will be that and nothing more for me. If of this long life and all its days was left but one, I'd search for the most beautiful thing to which the earthly life belong. The most beautiful thing on this earth is solely dignity, only that makes life into life and reality. So is the vastness of the world but a leaf gathering dew, and inside its bowl rests a single drop of water clear and true. This single tranquil drop is life's most cherished thing. Oh make me worthy to peer into it! Oh make me clean!