Poem

Hanny Michaelis

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Original language

What it would have been like

What it would have been like
if I hadn’t known you, except perhaps
by hearsay or appearance -
easier, I suppose:
not those constant wasp-stings
of fear and doubt. Nor
those islands of tropical bliss
in a polar sea of discontent.

© Translation: 2009, Judith Wilkinson
Publisher: Earlier version published on www.languageandculture.net, , 2005

Hoe het geweest zou zijn

Hoe het geweest zou zijn
als ik je niet kende, hoogstens
van horen zeggen of gezicht -
gemakkelijker, neem ik aan:
niet telkens die wespeprikken
van angst en twijfel. Maar ook
geen eilandjes van tropisch welbehagen
in een poolzee van displezier.

© 1996, Hanny Michaelis
From: Verzamelde Gedichten
Publisher: Uitgeverij G.A Van Oorschot, Amsterdam

Hanny Michaelis

Hanny Michaelis

(The Netherlands, 1922 - 2007)

Hanny Michaelis was born in 1922 in Amsterdam, and her small but distinctive oeuvre has been awarded numerous literary prizes. Michaelis established a reputation as a poet of contained lyricism, and her work is characteristically tempered by an almost wry awareness of limitation. While her poems are often marked by an epigrammatic conciseness and an element of detached and analytical reflection...

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Poems

Poems of Hanny Michaelis

This evening I learnt

Hanny Michaelis

A morning

Hanny Michaelis

Slowly but surely

Hanny Michaelis

Love rolled away

Hanny Michaelis

Tantalising uncertainty,

Hanny Michaelis

What it would have been like

Hanny Michaelis

Sometimes like gems

Hanny Michaelis

Stretched out on your back

Hanny Michaelis

In an unguarded moment

Hanny Michaelis

Years later

Hanny Michaelis

Close

What it would have been like

What it would have been like
if I hadn’t known you, except perhaps
by hearsay or appearance -
easier, I suppose:
not those constant wasp-stings
of fear and doubt. Nor
those islands of tropical bliss
in a polar sea of discontent.

© 2009, Judith Wilkinson
From: Verzamelde Gedichten
Publisher: 2005, Earlier version published on www.languageandculture.net, Amsterdam

What it would have been like

What it would have been like
if I hadn’t known you, except perhaps
by hearsay or appearance -
easier, I suppose:
not those constant wasp-stings
of fear and doubt. Nor
those islands of tropical bliss
in a polar sea of discontent.

© 2009, Judith Wilkinson
Publisher: 2005, Earlier version published on www.languageandculture.net,

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