P.C. Boutens - a neglected Dutch poet

PEAR-TREE

Through the approaching evening shade

Blazes a pear-tree, blossom-white,

Transfigured in its flaring light,

A tree no more, remade

A vessel, whose ethereal shroud

And hood is sequin-cloaked

With fiery snow invoked

From banks of fading evening cloud -

Is this a mirror to your eye,

Soul, unconcealed in earthly bliss,

Your soul in rising blossom-mist

As dew descending from on high?

Still earthbound, yet from earth released,

Smile that is blind from tears and joy,

Gaining an entrance to love's ways

Past life and death's extremities...

Calmly, behind the gutting brand,

Does night the keeper hold at heaven's verge

The swarm of star-bees, lost to daytime search,

Cupped in the hivelike shadow of his hand.

For the original poem, plus a German, Swedish and Danish translation with commentaries, go to here.

For more about Boutens' imagery and six poems in translation from different periods of his writing, go to here for the English article, or here for the Dutch article.