Poem
Hans Tentije
THE INCONCEIVABLE
Trying to conceive the inconceivable, the momentwhen just like that it hits you
that time’s up and you’re lucky
to be allowed one last glimpse
through tall windows at — as though painted by a Dutch master —
bleachfield-white thunderheads above a meadow
near Haarlem, their shadows lunging
toward and past the frame’s edge, the draft
at window jambs and joints
ill-equipped you note, despairing, how the actual
and the imagined have become ever more
intertwined and with the sometimes
so painfully magnificent —
the comforting, vaguely melancholic, already autumnish
late-summer days, the sandbanks and turbulent time-inundating
waves, old friendships, snippets
of music wafting through your mind, your
beloved’s infectious laugh
but what are your rooms and their objects to do, soon
when you finally forsake them and your words, memories
clot in your veins, brain tissue
only to be released
to water, air, earth, fire
© Translation: 2018, Hans Tentije
HET ONVOORSTELBARE
HET ONVOORSTELBARE
Je het onvoorstelbare proberen voor te stellen, het ogenblikwaarop het plots tot je doordringt
dat het over en uit is en je bevoorrecht bent
nog even te mogen kijken
achter hoge ramen de als door een Hollandse meester
geschilderde
bleekveldwitte stapelwolken boven een weiland
in de buurt van Haarlem, die hun schaduwen voortstuwen
naar en over de omlijsting, de tocht
bij kozijnen en sponningen
slecht toegerust zie je, vertwijfeld, hoe het werkelijke
en het ingebeelde hechter en hechter
met elkaar vervlochten zijn geraakt en met het soms
zo schrijnend luisterrijke –
de gelukkig stemmende, licht droefgeestige, al herfstige
nazomerse dagen, de zandbanken en tijd overspoelende
onstuimige
brandingen, oude vriendschappen, flarden
door je hoofd spelende muziek, de aanstekelijke
lach van je geliefde
maar wat moeten je kamers en hun voorwerpen straks
als je ze eenmaal de rug toekeert en je woorden, herinneringen
in je bloedsomloop, je hersenweefsel
zullen stollen, om overgeleverd te worden
aan water, lucht, aarde, vuur
© 2018, Hans Tentije
From: Begane grond
Publisher: De Harmonie, Amsterdam
From: Begane grond
Publisher: De Harmonie, Amsterdam
Poems
Poems of Hans Tentije
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THE INCONCEIVABLE
Trying to conceive the inconceivable, the momentwhen just like that it hits you
that time’s up and you’re lucky
to be allowed one last glimpse
through tall windows at — as though painted by a Dutch master —
bleachfield-white thunderheads above a meadow
near Haarlem, their shadows lunging
toward and past the frame’s edge, the draft
at window jambs and joints
ill-equipped you note, despairing, how the actual
and the imagined have become ever more
intertwined and with the sometimes
so painfully magnificent —
the comforting, vaguely melancholic, already autumnish
late-summer days, the sandbanks and turbulent time-inundating
waves, old friendships, snippets
of music wafting through your mind, your
beloved’s infectious laugh
but what are your rooms and their objects to do, soon
when you finally forsake them and your words, memories
clot in your veins, brain tissue
only to be released
to water, air, earth, fire
© 2018, Hans Tentije
From: Begane grond
From: Begane grond
THE INCONCEIVABLE
Trying to conceive the inconceivable, the momentwhen just like that it hits you
that time’s up and you’re lucky
to be allowed one last glimpse
through tall windows at — as though painted by a Dutch master —
bleachfield-white thunderheads above a meadow
near Haarlem, their shadows lunging
toward and past the frame’s edge, the draft
at window jambs and joints
ill-equipped you note, despairing, how the actual
and the imagined have become ever more
intertwined and with the sometimes
so painfully magnificent —
the comforting, vaguely melancholic, already autumnish
late-summer days, the sandbanks and turbulent time-inundating
waves, old friendships, snippets
of music wafting through your mind, your
beloved’s infectious laugh
but what are your rooms and their objects to do, soon
when you finally forsake them and your words, memories
clot in your veins, brain tissue
only to be released
to water, air, earth, fire
© 2018, Hans Tentije
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