Poem

Hanny Michaelis

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Original language

Love rolled away

Love rolled away
to the other end
of the world. Faith
smothered in the mud
of questions and quandaries.
Even hope has scrambled off
shamefaced. And yet
enough is left not to want to die
and from time to time
to embrace one’s shortcomings
as eagerly as one embraced
the old abundance.

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

Liefde weggerold

Liefde weggerold
naar het andere eind
van de wereld. Geloof
in de modder van wikken
en wegen verstikt.
Zelfs de hoop beschaamd
terruggekrabbeld. En toch
genoeg over om niet dood
te willen en bij tijden
zijn tekort met dezelfde
gretigheid te omhelzen
als vroeger zijn overvloed.

© 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

Love rolled away

Love rolled away
to the other end
of the world. Faith
smothered in the mud
of questions and quandaries.
Even hope has scrambled off
shamefaced. And yet
enough is left not to want to die
and from time to time
to embrace one’s shortcomings
as eagerly as one embraced
the old abundance.

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

Love rolled away

Love rolled away
to the other end
of the world. Faith
smothered in the mud
of questions and quandaries.
Even hope has scrambled off
shamefaced. And yet
enough is left not to want to die
and from time to time
to embrace one’s shortcomings
as eagerly as one embraced
the old abundance.

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

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