Poem

Hanny Michaelis

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Original language

The body

The body
that contents itself with
another body
since the one
became unavailable
must from time to time
turn a blind eye
to its own consciousness
as it escapes to a remote
half overgrown
corner of memory
and so betrays
the betrayal.

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

Het lichaam

Het lichaam
dat genoegen neemt
met een ander lichaam
sedert het ene
onbereikbaar werd
moet van tijd tot tijd
oogluikend toestaan
dat het bewustzijn
ontwijkt naar een half
overwoekerde uithoek
van het geheugen
en zo verraad pleegt
aan het verraad.

© 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

The body

The body
that contents itself with
another body
since the one
became unavailable
must from time to time
turn a blind eye
to its own consciousness
as it escapes to a remote
half overgrown
corner of memory
and so betrays
the betrayal.

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

The body

The body
that contents itself with
another body
since the one
became unavailable
must from time to time
turn a blind eye
to its own consciousness
as it escapes to a remote
half overgrown
corner of memory
and so betrays
the betrayal.

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

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