Poem

Hanny Michaelis

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Original language

This evening I learnt

This evening I learnt
that the moon isn’t round
but pear-shaped,
with at least two
bulges, maybe
even three. Later,
when I looked out,
a round, incandescent
disc climbed up
above the roofs
and I caught myself
harbouring the same stubbornness
with which I
honour other
dented illusions.

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

Vanavond hoorde ik

Vanavond hoorde ik
dat de maan niet rond
maar peervormig is
met tenminste twee
uitstulpingen, misschien
wel drie. Toen ik later
naar buiten keek
klom een ronde
witgloeiende schijf
boven de daken uit
en ik betrapte me
op dezelfde koppigheid
waarmee ik andere
gedeukte illusies
in ere houd.

© 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

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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

This evening I learnt

This evening I learnt
that the moon isn’t round
but pear-shaped,
with at least two
bulges, maybe
even three. Later,
when I looked out,
a round, incandescent
disc climbed up
above the roofs
and I caught myself
harbouring the same stubbornness
with which I
honour other
dented illusions.

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

This evening I learnt

This evening I learnt
that the moon isn’t round
but pear-shaped,
with at least two
bulges, maybe
even three. Later,
when I looked out,
a round, incandescent
disc climbed up
above the roofs
and I caught myself
harbouring the same stubbornness
with which I
honour other
dented illusions.

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

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