Marjoleine de Vos: 'Het leven in juni'

 

Life in June 

Around me everything’s loudly alive

the farmer on his mower, bleating sheep

in the maple a blackcap calling

for its mate, from the depths of flowers

the droning of a bee.

And I’m also alive but have to say so myself

for nothing of all I observe mentions me.

As you can talk with friends about past times:

We were on the beach, in a tent, perfectly happy –

then the question: were you there too?

So I’m alone in the garden in the world

and around me everything breathes and inside

sits a man. This then is life, he writes,

this morning in June, the blackcap singing

and her in the garden.