Poem
Lieke Marsman
Evaporate, condensate
These are strange times, unstable times.Seasons change, but never turn
into holidays.
You coexist with other bodies
that piss, dribble, rant, shit. All the while
a choir in a minor key softly screaming,
Your body is sick, but you will heal, this will fade.
You’ll lie in the grass, stiller, thinner,
receive visitors looking fashionably underweight.
Cancer has no calendar, so be patient.
Evaporate, condensate. Even disasters
are composites of events, not products of fate.
You just have to distil, then ablate:
You will heal. This will fade.
© Translation: 2019, Sophie Collins
We verdampen
We verdampen
Het zijn rare tijden, jaargetijdenveranderen en vermijden een confrontatie
met vakantie.
Je pruttelt wat mee met lichamen
die druipen, ijlen, kwijlen, schijten.
Een koor in mineur, dat zachtjes brult:
Je lijf is ziek, maar je wordt beter, het zal slijten.
Je zult stiller in het gras liggen en slanker,
uitgemergeld chic bezoek ontvangen. Maar kanker
heeft geen kalender, dus heb geduld.
We verdampen tot we condenseren
en ook rampen zijn gemaakt van feiten.
Je hoeft ze er alleen maar uit te destilleren:
Je wordt weer beter. Het zal slijten.
© 2018, Lieke Marsman
From: De volgende scan duurt vijf minuten
Publisher: Uitgeverij Pluim, Amsterdam/Antwerpen
From: De volgende scan duurt vijf minuten
Publisher: Uitgeverij Pluim, Amsterdam/Antwerpen
Poems
Poems of Lieke Marsman
Close
Evaporate, condensate
These are strange times, unstable times.Seasons change, but never turn
into holidays.
You coexist with other bodies
that piss, dribble, rant, shit. All the while
a choir in a minor key softly screaming,
Your body is sick, but you will heal, this will fade.
You’ll lie in the grass, stiller, thinner,
receive visitors looking fashionably underweight.
Cancer has no calendar, so be patient.
Evaporate, condensate. Even disasters
are composites of events, not products of fate.
You just have to distil, then ablate:
You will heal. This will fade.
© 2019, Sophie Collins
From: De volgende scan duurt vijf minuten
From: De volgende scan duurt vijf minuten
Evaporate, condensate
These are strange times, unstable times.Seasons change, but never turn
into holidays.
You coexist with other bodies
that piss, dribble, rant, shit. All the while
a choir in a minor key softly screaming,
Your body is sick, but you will heal, this will fade.
You’ll lie in the grass, stiller, thinner,
receive visitors looking fashionably underweight.
Cancer has no calendar, so be patient.
Evaporate, condensate. Even disasters
are composites of events, not products of fate.
You just have to distil, then ablate:
You will heal. This will fade.
© 2019, Sophie Collins
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