Thursday, 14 January 2016

Boutens - 'Wat is het u of ik u min of min u niet...'


It’s not so much the meaning as the murmur of the words that are important in this poem. Imagine someone reciting almost out of earshot – is the song the same?



Liedje

Wat is het u,
     Of ik u min of min u niet
Wat is het u,
     Wat u in mij, zoo ver van u, geschiedt;
Wat is het u,
     Mijn onbegrepen stilt, mijn onbegrepen lied -
Wat is het u,
     Of ik u min of min u niet?


Song

What’s it to you
     If I love you or let love be
What’s it to you
     What you, so far away, become in me;
What’s it to you
     The import of my quiet, my song you fail to see –
What’s it to you
     If I love you or let love be?


First published in De Gids (October 1906),
subsequently in the collection Stemmen (1907)



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