Poem
Hans Tentije
FROM OVERSEA
A low-lying light whose shadows stretchto places out of reach, by now overgrown
around what had once transpired
and might not yet be erased –
cloud-chased, capricious, refound
random moments, but there’s so much
vista beyond which they’ll surely
vanish, though even as remote
a landscape as this
should remember them
when looking at last lets you forget
all images are reduced
to their essence, to the hidden place that is the source
of every word, every song
in a light from oversea, from over dune hollows
and sand drifts, that illuminates all
but clarifies naught
© Translation: 2020, Hans Tentije
VAN OVER ZEE
VAN OVER ZEE
Een strijklicht dat zijn schaduwen uitstrektnaar onbereikbaar geworden, al verwilderde plekken
om wat zich er ooit voltrokken heeft
en misschien nog steeds niet is gewist –
met de wolken wegdrijvende, weer te binnen
geschoten, willekeurige, grillige momenten, maar er is zoveel
horizon waarachter ze vervolgens
moeten verdwijnen, terwijl een afgelegen
landschap als dit ze zich zelfs
zou horen te herinneren
als het kijken eindelijk het vergeten inwilligt
zijn alle beelden teruggebracht
tot hun essentie, het onderhuidse waar elk woord, elk lied
immer uit voortgekomen is
in een van over zee, van over duinvalleien
en verstuivingen komend licht, dat alles verheldert
maar niets verklaart
© 2016, Hans Tentije
From: Om en nabij
Publisher: De Harmonie, Amsterdam
From: Om en nabij
Publisher: De Harmonie, Amsterdam
Poems
Poems of Hans Tentije
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FROM OVERSEA
A low-lying light whose shadows stretchto places out of reach, by now overgrown
around what had once transpired
and might not yet be erased –
cloud-chased, capricious, refound
random moments, but there’s so much
vista beyond which they’ll surely
vanish, though even as remote
a landscape as this
should remember them
when looking at last lets you forget
all images are reduced
to their essence, to the hidden place that is the source
of every word, every song
in a light from oversea, from over dune hollows
and sand drifts, that illuminates all
but clarifies naught
© 2020, Hans Tentije
From: Om en nabij
From: Om en nabij
FROM OVERSEA
A low-lying light whose shadows stretchto places out of reach, by now overgrown
around what had once transpired
and might not yet be erased –
cloud-chased, capricious, refound
random moments, but there’s so much
vista beyond which they’ll surely
vanish, though even as remote
a landscape as this
should remember them
when looking at last lets you forget
all images are reduced
to their essence, to the hidden place that is the source
of every word, every song
in a light from oversea, from over dune hollows
and sand drifts, that illuminates all
but clarifies naught
© 2020, Hans Tentije
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