Monday, 1 January 2024

Tsjêbbe Hettinga: 'II: Ljocht en dei ferrane...'

 

II

 

Ljocht en dei ferrane

As bline leavjenden, neaken

As de see, wyld as de weagen strânjend

Yn eagen dy’t eagen it tinken benimme.

En fan fier, wyn yn ‘e wol, gersfrettend, de winterskiep

 

Under gysten stirnzen,

Seefûgels boppe it floedmerk –

It kymstrakke twaspoar fan earmoed en

Ferlittenens (gesicht dat it witen ûntstrûpt),

Iensume jacht fan ‘e skraits yn pûsters tebeksetten.

 

Tusken de blauwe kust

Fan it westen en de grize

Herne fan it grimmitich noarden rint,

Ut it lead hingjend troch de gisel fan ‘e wyn,

In frou mei seegriene eagen dy’t fergeat om te sjen.

 

Op de swarte hakken

Fan ’t lot (dat wiist nei in doar mei

In matte fan ‘en mar wachtsje’ derfoar),

Wrakselet se, nacht foar noch nei, yn it mulpunt

Fan leechte, nei neat dat har har namme tasizze sil.

 

 

II

 

Light and day coalesce

Like blind lovers, naked

As the sea, wild as the waves stranding

In eyes that deprive eyes of thought.

And far off, wind in their wool, grazing winter sheep

 

Beneath stormy terns,

Sea gulls above the tidemark –

The taut twin skyline track of destitution and

Desolation (a face that eludes knowledge)

The lonely hunt of the osprey into gusts of wind.

 

Between the blue coastline

Of the west and the grey

Quarter of the grim north, a woman walks –

Hanging lopsided because of the lashing wind –

One with green eyes, who forgot to look around her.

 

On the black heels

Of fate (that points to a door

With a mat of ‘just wait and see’ in front of it)

She struggles, night neither ahead nor behind, at the hub

Of the emptiness, for nothing willing to pledge her her name.

 


 

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