Lighthouse and Traces have arrived

Two books for the presentation on March 23rd in De Zwarte Panter in Antwerp (8 PM) have arrived Roger Nupie's Lighthouse* Lichthaus was the first to come out of the crate. The title of the book refers to the novel of Virginia Woolf, just as the moving poem The waves. His poetry presented here is solemn, speaking of missing and longing. In the cycle  Her handwriting he remembers his grandmother kindly with the deep love of  grandson. Roger Nupie questions conventions in Self portrait, is playful and explicitly erotic in several poems, a.o. in Olivette. Yet he also challenges conventions in his self-portrait, no longer fulfilling the romantic image of a poet, but also in two poems about war and its consequences. The German translation is by Fred Schywek and the English by Annmarie Sauer. The translations are always proofread with the authors who authorize  them.

To the lighthouse                                                Zum Leuchtturm

De liefde                                                               Die Liebe

verliest                                                                 verliert

haar getijden.                                                      ihre Gezeiten.

Dat wegebben blijft                                             Das Wegebben bleibt

ons bij, versteend                                                uns erhalten, versteinert

op de oever.                                                          auf dem Ufer.

Nooit                                                                      Nie

halen we                                                                holen wir

morgen.                                                                 das Morgen.

TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

Love

looses

its tides.

This ebbing away stays

with us petrified

on the shore.

Never

will we make it

to tomorrow.