Sunday, July 6, 2008

Marcel van Maele

Marcel van Maele is one of the great poets writing in Dutch. He ended up in hospital, and seems very frail. To honor him I offer here my English translation of one of his poems. (Paris will go on tomorrow...)

Sharp the limits of inside and out,
life and death meet
barely and while lusts leave life
eyeing only the tempting vista’s.

So simple to fool life
when the soul sails out, in the white
of this wide view a cool glance.

The past is wrapped up, the future locked,
thought nailed down, desire
lamed, the body declared inhabitable
taken out of circulation.

Thus the night devours evening
it is done
forever sounds the midnight gong.

 

1 comment:

  1. Up is the antithesis
    of Down
    Down is where clowns wear
    a frown
    Where life's spirit
    leaks
    Out on the sheets
    of the crypt-box
    buried in the
    ground
    Up is high
    up in the sky
    where one looks down and
    sighs 'Oh my,
    I feel so good I
    want to cry', to wish
    I were born to live
    forever, but not together
    with my doppleganger
    Death
    Lily white, pickle green, clouds
    of purple seldom seen
    release me from my madness-dream
    Let me pee my
    chartreuse stream
    call me Pink Poet, that's
    my scene
    (Translated from the original Inuit)

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