Albert Verwey: 'Maanlicht'

Maanlicht

 

O geur'ger heft zich iedre bloeme

     In maanlicht-milden middernacht,

Als ik de zoete bloeme noeme,

     Die mij des dages tegenlacht.

 

En schoon ik sterre en maanlicht roeme,

     Dat zoet'lijk slaapt op 't bloembed zacht,

De kleine, die ik mijne noeme,

     Is sterrenstraal en bloemenpracht.

 

En tot de blanke bloeme nijg ik,

     Of droom en geur ook mij omving; -

 

En tot de stille sterren stijg ik,

     En murmel mijn herinnering; -

 

En met ontloken lippen zwijg ik

In mijner minne mijmering. –

 

 

Moonlight

 

More fragrant rises every flower

     In moonlight’s gentle depths of night,

When I the flower name at this hour

     Whose daytime smile for me is bright.

 

Though star and moonlight I’m extolling

     That on its flower-bed sleeps so fine,

The small flower who by name I’m calling,

     Is radiant star and flower divine.

 

And to this gleaming flower I’m bending,

     As were both dream and scent for me;–

 

And to the silent stars ascending

     I’m murmuring my memory; –

 

With wordless open lips descending

     Into my loved one’s reverie. –

 

 

Albert Verwey: 'De zin van het rijm' (PS 57)

 

DE ZIN VAN HET RIJM

 

Geheimen heb ik vaak, en klaar, gesproken

En leg nu in dit klaarste ’t grootst geheim:

In paring en omarming van het rijm

Liggen verlangen en geluk verdoken.

 

En wordt de binding schijnbaar opgebroken,

Ge weet toch dat ik van verlangen zwijm:

Eer ge kunt spreken wordt de korte vlijm

Van de angst door nieuwe omcirkeling gewroken.

 

Een beetre vorm vonden de minnaars niet,

De dichters die de pols van ’t leven vonden

In ’t zoete klinken van hun rijmend lied.

 

Hun woorden waren 't kloppen van hun wonden

En zelfs het oopnen van een nieuw verschiet

Werd door hun kunst aan de oude kim verbonden.

 

 

THE MEANING OF RHYME

 

Often, and clearly, secrets I have uttered

And in what’s clearest I the greatest lay:

In rhymes’ embrace and coupling interplay

A longing and a bliss both lie tight-shuttered.

 

And if the tie apparently gets broken,

You know for sure that I from longing swoon:

Ere you can speak, the avenging razor wound

Of fear by fresh encirclement is woken.

 

A better form was ne’er by lovers found,

The poets who the pulse of life discovered

Within their rhyming song’s so pleasing sound.

 

Their wounds’ own pulsing did these words impart,

Even a new horizon was uncovered

And melded with the old one by their art.

 

 

Translated in collaboration with Albert Hagenaars

Poetic Synapses 57

 

Gustaf Münch-Petersen: 'det susar i skogen'

 

det susar i skogen

(till Edith Södergran)

 

en droppe i skogen vill forma allt i sin bild -

en droppe i skogen

fann sig själv sannare än allt -

skogens droppe fattade lyran,

större än världen -:

detta endast är ett öde,

att finna sig själv skönast,

sannast,

renast –

 

allt vill jag forma i min bild -

allt skall

vara det härligaste av allt -

högre, högre hänger lyran,

större än världen -

darra, o värld, för ditt öde –

 

darra, o värld -

skapelsen kommer -

en droppe i skogen blev sannare än allt –

 

 

the forest is murmuring

(to Edith Södergran)

 

a droplet in the forest wishes to form everything in its image –

a droplet in the forest

found itself truer than everything 

the forest’s droplet grasped the lyre,

greater than the world –:

this alone is a destiny,

to find oneself most beautiful

truest,

purest –

 

i wish to form everything in my image

everything is to

be the most glorious of everything –

higher, higher hangs the lyre,

larger than the world –

tremble, o world, at your destiny –

 

tremble, o world –

creation is coming –

– a droplet in the forest becomes truer than everything –

 

 

Jean de la Fontaine: 'Le loup et l'agneau'

Gustave Doré

Le loup et l’agneau

 

La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure:

Nous l’allons montrer tout à l’heure.

 

Un Agneau se désaltérait

Dans le courant d’une onde pure.

Un Loup survient à jeun qui cherchait aventure,

Et que la faim en ces lieux attirait.

Qui te rend si hardi de troubler mon breuvage?

Dit cet animal plein de rage:

Tu seras châtié de ta témérité.

– Sire, répond l’Agneau, que votre Majesté

Ne se mette pas en colère;

Mais plutôt qu’elle considère

Que je me vas désaltérant

Dans le courant,

Plus de vingt pas au-dessous d’Elle,

Et que par conséquent, en aucune façon,

Je ne puis troubler sa boisson.

– Tu la troubles, reprit cette bête cruelle,

Et je sais que de moi tu médis l’an passé.

– Comment l’aurais-je fait si je n’étais pas né?

Reprit l’Agneau, je tette encor ma mère.

– Si ce n’est toi, c’est donc ton frère.

– Je n’en ai point.

– C’est donc quelqu’un des tiens:

Car vous ne m’épargnez guère,

Vous, vos bergers, et vos chiens.

On me l’a dit: il faut que je me venge.

Là-dessus, au fond des forêts

Le Loup l’emporte, et puis le mange,

Sans autre forme de procès.

 

 

The wolf and the lamb

 

The reasoning of those in power is always best:

As with our tale we now attest.

 

A lamb was quenching its keen thirst

In waters of a sparkling brook.

A roaming famished Wolf draws near with eager look

By hunger to such spots well-nigh coerced.

What has emboldened you to disregard my claim?

This beast exclaims, with rage aflame:

You shall be punished for your gross temerity.

– Sire, the Lamb answers him, let not your Majesty

Become incensed in any way;

Instead consider that my stay

When drinking of the water here 

Won’t interfere

with yours if twenty paces down,

since it in consequence, will never, in no wise,

Your Majesty antagonise.

– It does just that, this cruel beast answers with a frown,

I also know last year you said bad things of me.

– Since I was not yet born, how could this ever be?

The Lamb replies, I am a suckling still.

– If not, your brother fits the bill.

–None such have I.

– Well then, some other link:

The likes of you all wish me ill 

You, your shepherds, dogs that slink.

The time, folk say, to seek revenge is now.

The Wolf then disappears from view,

In forest depths the Lamb devours:

And does so without more ado.

 

 

zkg 2

 

ZKG 2

 

the blackbird chirps and

trills away

he improvises

every day

 

or so it seems though

it may be

he shapes his song to

fit his tree

 

and seamlessly the

two then merge

and fill the space where

they converge

 

Gustaf Münch-Petersen: 'morgon'

 

morgon

 

varifrån kommer det,

att vi, utan allt,

fattiga på allt,

kunna drömma allt -?

- framtiden är redan lagd,

fjärran vilar hon

sövd av våra drömmar –

 

 

morning

 

how can it be

that we, lacking everything,

short of everything,

can dream everything–?

– the future is already laid down,

far off it is resting

sedated by our dreams –

Eldrid Lunden: 'Tomheit'

 

Tomheit

 

Tomheit

er noe vi berre kan snakke om

frå ein stad utanfor tomheita

Tomheit finst ikkje

i naturleg

tilstand

I atmosfæren vil tomrommet

øyeblikkeleg

invaderast av det som ligg omkring

Syns vi dette høyrest abstrakt ut

kan vi opprette eit tomrom

på plenen og sjå

kva som skjer

 

 

Emptiness

 

Emptiness

is something we only can talk about

from a place outside emptiness

Emptiness does not exist

in a natural

state

In the atmosphere the empty space will

immediately

be invaded by what lies around it

If this seems highly abstract to us

we can set up an empty space

on the lawn and see

what happens

Marie Dauguet: 'Les orges'

 

Les orges

 

Les orges sous l’azur blêmi

De l’aurore à peine où frémi;

Tendrement au bord du bois rose,

Somnambulique, un merle cause.

Très loin, vers l’horizon bleuté,

Quelque part un coq a chanté.

 

L’air de velours vibre en sourdine,

Comme une pâle mandoline,

Et, colombe au bord de son nid,

De flocons d’écume garni,

La source aux palpitantes houles,

Imperceptiblement roucoule.

 

Sur les mélisses diaphanes,

Il semble que frissonne et plane,

Semant des plumes dans le vent,

Un essaim pensif d’oiseaux blancs,

Aux sonorités cristallines,

L’air est une harpe câline.

 

Les chaumes s’étirent et songent,

Où des vols d’alouettes plongent,

Où s’étouffent des gazouillis.

A la lisière des taillis,

Comme des lèvres qui sourient,

Des roses vagues sont fleuries.

 

Et mon cœur, sans maître ni glose,

Soupire avec l’odeur des roses

Sauvages aux fossés des bois;

Avec, la clarté qui croît,

Tournoiement de fuseaux d’aïeule,

Le bruisselis doux des éteules.

 

 

The fields of barley

 

The barley under stone-washed skies

Has scarcely quivered at dawn’s rise ;

At rosy wood’s edge, tenderly

A blackbird’s chatting sleepily.

The far horizon’s tinged with blue

Somewhere a cock’s been crowing too.

 

The muted velvet air vibrates,

Like some pale mandolin it quakes,

And at the far edge of its nest,

With flecks of foam discreetly dressed,

A dove, source of this pulsing swell,

Coos imperceptibly as well.

 

O’er limpid lemon balm it seems

As if a flock of white birds streams,

Trembling and hovering at ease,

Sowing small feathers in the breeze –

With crystal sounds that coalesce

The air is like a harp’s caress.

 

The stalks dream as they stretch and bend, 

There the larks’ plunging flight will end,

There all their twittering will die.

At the coppice’s edge nearby,

Like lips that break into a smile,

Blurred roses now bloom for a while.

 

And my heart, unmastered, unwrought,

Sighs at wild roses’ fragrance, brought

From woodland ditches far and near;

With, as all things become more clear,

Ancestral spindles’ twirling thread,

The rustling barley’s gentle tread.

 

Gustaf Münch-Petersen: 'skapa'

 

skapa

 

skapa dig en värld

utav gärningar -

lät följderna rulla likt

ständigt olika stenar

nedför branterna, som lovar havet,

och stumt hopar enastående skärvor

period efter period -

skapa dig världar,

låt dem rulla likt stenar –

 

 

create

 

create a world for yourself

out of deeds –

let the consequences roll like

a constant variety of stones

down slopes that border the sea

and mutely amass amazing shards

period after period –

create worlds for yourself

let them roll like stones –

 

 

Gustaf Münch-Petersen: 'stäng in dig'

 

stäng in dig

 

stäng in dig i din kammare

med din svaghets guld,

vänta i din kammare,

tills kärlekens mod har kommit,

vänta,

tills ett öppet svärd ligger

mellan vad du måste och vad du icke

längre kan -

 

 

shut yourself up

 

Shut yourself up in your room

with the gold of your weakness,

wait in your room

until love’s courage has come,

wait

until an unsheathed sword lies

between what you must and what you

no longer can –