The Dutch poet J.C. Bloem - two famous poems

NOVEMBER

It’s raining and it is November:

Autumn lays siege now to the heart

That sadly, though more wont than ever,

Endures its secret pains apart.

And in the room, where resignation

Sees daily life pass as it may,

From streets that speak of desolation

A bleak light falls at close of day.

The years pass by but never alter,

The difference will soon be gone

Between dim memories that falter

And what is lived and is to come.

Lost are the ways I knew of gaining

Release from time in earlier days;

Always November, always raining,

Always this empty heart, always.

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THE DAPPERSTRAAT

Nature is for the blank or satisfied.

And then: what can we boast of naturewise?

A stretch of woodland, postage stamp in size,

A hill with some small houses on the side.

Give me the town roads with their greyish cast,

The harbour quays of interlocking stone

The clouds whose beauty cannot be outdone

When, skylight-framed, they all go drifting past.

Everything’s much if much is not expected.

Life hides its miracles till, without warning,

They’re suddenly displayed in all their art.

This on my own I thought I had detected,

Rain-sodden, on a drab and drizzly morning,

Just downright happy, in the Dapperstraat.

For more poems by Bloem go to here.

For a workshop account of the translation process
of 'November' go to here.