Poem

Bernard Dewulf

Side by side

Song

While we walked in similar ways,
we did still walk apart.

While we, or so we thought, converged,
we didn’t cease to be.

While we lay together daily,
we caressed at a remove.

This is how we have existed,
always in drawing near

something began to sing and, singing,
to disappear.

Zang

Liepen wij naar bewegingen gelijk,
wij liepen uiteen.

Vielen wij, dachten wij, samen,
wij vielen niet weg.

Lagen wij dagelijks tegen elkaar,
wij wreven afgelegen.

Zo hebben wij bestaan,
altijd in het naderen

ving iets te zingen en zingend
te ontbreken aan.

Bernard Dewulf

(Belgium, 1960 - 2021)

To regularly grace the front page of a quality newspaper for years: for many writers this remains a dream, but not for Bernard Dewulf. Up until last year the poet and journalist, who as of 2010 is the house dramatist at theatre company NTGent, wrote a column for Belgian daily De Morgen every other day. However, like his much enjoyed, poetical columns, his poems bear nothing of the loudmouthed l...