Poem
Robert Anker
ballad of my aunt calling to wish me
a happy birthday or vice versa
For we were born on the same day a mystery Yet unsolved for she being so much
Older than me how could we coincide
A mystery already haunting the barns
At the farmhouse the half-light the door
And suddenly the sunlit kitchen and the smell
Of coffee but the grown-ups nattering on about
How big I\'ve grown but the choice array
Of fancy cakes on the table oilcloth but my uncle Henk
The one that scares me a little at times he pours me
A nip of brandy just a standard prank to needle -
"He\'s just a child!" - my aunts
Oh did he yes he was a prankster
Says auntie oh ah luv\'d tha\' man ah did
though soiled he was back off the land
My eyes lit up whenever I saw him
What\'s that, lad, all of twenty years?
She talks way out of step with my own feeling
As from times past such a strong feeling
Of happiness surges and leaves me already
Sucks vacuum my little soul onder the grey lard
Of recollection I\'m gasping for breath auntie
Just coughing yes eternal colds for the
remained-togetherness lost unsniffably
Wrapped in time yet at times a scent irrepressibly
Tears the cellophane just now something in your voice
Have I got draughts here auntie you bet an old
Upstairs flat chinks and cracks and bare
Floorboards not because we think it\'s warm but looking good
The warmth is past you used to like looking good
But not among the cows but in the jeep you did
That you all used to get to Hoorn for theatre
Lord that cold jeep fancy you still recalling
Before we went I scrubbed it clean of dung and dirt
Thear be th\' milkman now ah\'ll call ye back
Don\'t bother auntie. . . Hung up she has a chat
At the door of her granny house where she
After uncle\'s death close to the children
They thought in their distant village wouldn\'t
Mother like that of course saved her from scrabble
With Corrie Kos and chinwag with my mother
After sixty years with all those people
There is a branch of the Women\'s Institute here
Haven\'t you mother that by now they\'ve all grown up
And small (and dead) and moved away but that is fun
Here\'s brother Piet from yet another village followed
The scent of the old nest and but she can\'t know that yet
Next year her sister Geer (88) from Zeeland will
Join the ranks when her husband
Dies sudden- oh my God there my auntie
Booms out of my answering machine not switched
Off the thing too late so I call her
To finally congratulate her on her eighty-sixth birthday and she me
On my lost years jerk I think regret
Says she why should you for you lose nothing
Recollection takes time out of time
But mother does she never recalls nothing
Oh dear, your mother yes but she keeps up with the times
She keeps track of everything but why should one
It\'s a rotten world as she always says and how
She called me only yesterday but what I\'m saying
There\'s nowt that she an\' ah can do about \'t and then
We\'ve done our bit the children are now grown
(And you two so close to death auntie what is it like
With so much dying dumped just outside your door
The torn-up road the waste beyond
But why does more of me die with you auntie
Than when my mother are you perhaps a narrowly
Defined and undiluted feeling in me and does
My mother dwell in all my brain-cells
Today we coincide again auntie don\'t we
Take me back with you to the hay the heavy smell of cattle
The rattling pail half-light the
Kitchen door coffee) - shit she\'s hung up on me
Of course because I didn\'t answer her
The torn-up line the signals down my spine.
ballade van mijn tante die opbelt
om mij te feliciteren met mijn verjaardag of ik haar
ballade van mijn tante die opbelt
om mij te feliciteren met mijn verjaardag of ik haar
Want wij zijn jarig op dezelfde dag een raadsel Dat nooit is opgelost want dat zij zoveel jaren
Ouder is dan ik hoe kan dat samenvallen
Een mysterie dat al zweefde in de stallen
Van de boerderij het schemerlicht de deur
Ineens de zonverlichte keuken en de geur
Van koffie maar van de grote mensen het gezeur
Dat ik al zo\'n grote jongen maar de keur
Van taartjes op het tafelzeiltje maar oom Henk
Voor wie ik vaak een beetje bang ben hij schenkt
Mij een CB\'tje in een grapje dat ik ken om
De tantes - `voor zo\'n jongen!\' - obstinaat te maken
O deed ie dat ja het was een grappenmaker
Zegt tante wat hew ik toch grôot houwen van die man
Al was hij nog zo smerig als hij uit het land
Kwam mijn ogen lichtten op als ik hem zag
Wat zeg je jongen twintig jaar alweer da\'s lang
Praat ze hevig uit de pas met mijn gevoel
Omdat uit de verloren tijd zo\'n hevig gevoel
Van geluk mij aanwaait en alweer voorbij trekt
Mijn zieltje vacuum trekt onder het grijze spek
Van de herinnering ik hap naar adem tante
Even hoesten ja verkouden eeuwig want de
Bijeengeblevenheid verloren onbruikbaar
In de tijd verpakt maar soms een geur onstuitbaar
Het cellofaan verscheurt daarnet iets in je stem
Of het hier ook tocht tante nou en of een oude
Bovenwoning kieren gaten en een houten
Kale vloer dat vinden wij niet warm maar mooi
De warmte is voorbij jij hield toch ook van mooi
Maar niet tussen de koeien maar wel in de jeep
Daar gingen jullie mee naar Hoorn naar toneel
Ochot die koude jeep maar dat je dat nog weet
Dan boende ik eerste de prut en stront nog van de wielen
Deer hè je de melkboer al ik bel je wel terug
Hoeft niet tante... opgehangen maakt ze een praatje
Aan de deur van haar aanleunwoning waar ze
Na de dood van oom lekker bij de kinderen
Vonden zij in hun verre dorp wilde
Moeder dat natuurlijk hoefde zij geen scrabble
Meer met Corrie Kos en met mijn moeder kletsen
Hoefde niet na zestig jaar met al die mensen
De Plattelandsvrouwen heb je hier toch ook
Hè moeder dat ze intussen allemaal groot
En klein (en dood) alweer verhuisd maar dat is leuk
Daar is broer Piet (91) uit weer een ander dorp de reuk
Van het nest gevolgd en maar dat kan ze nog niet weten
Volgend jaar komt zuster Geer (88) uit het Zeeuwse
De gelederen versterken als haar man
Plotseling gestorven zal o jee daar knalt
Tante uit mijn antwoordapparaat niet af
Gezet hoe werkt dat ding te laat dus bel ik haar
Om haar eindelijk te feliciteren met haar
Zesentachtigste verjaardag en zij mij
Met mijn verloren jaren zeikerd denk ik spijt
Zegt ze waarom zou je want je raakt niets kwijt
De herinnering duurt langer dan de tijd
Moeder anders wel die weet nooit niks van vroeger
Och heden moeder ja maar die is bij de tijd
Die volgt alles maar waarom zou je dat doen
Het is een rot wereld dat zegt ze zelf en hoe
Guster het ze me nag beld maar ik bedoel
Wat kunnen zij en ik daar nou aan doen en ook
Wij hoeven toch niet meer de kinderen zijn nu groot
(En jullie bijna dood tante hoe gaat dat toch
Met zoveel sterven vlak voor de deur gestort
De opgebroken weg de vlakte daarachter
Maar waarom gaat er met jou meer van mij tante
Dood dan als mijn moeder ben jij soms een nauw
Bepaald en onverdund gevoel in mij en houdt
Mijn moeder zich in al mijn hersencellen op
Vandaag vallen wij weer samen tante toch
Neem mij mee naar het hooi de zware koeielucht
De rinkelende emmer schemerlicht de deur
Van de keuken koffie) - shit daar heeft ze op
Gehangen want ik zei natuurlijk niks terug
De opgebroken lijn de seinen langs mijn rug
© 1996, Querido
From: In het vertrek
Publisher: Em. Querido\'s Uitgeverij, Amsterdam
From: In het vertrek
Publisher: Em. Querido\'s Uitgeverij, Amsterdam
Poems
Poems of Robert Anker
Close
ballad of my aunt calling to wish me
a happy birthday or vice versa
For we were born on the same day a mystery Yet unsolved for she being so much
Older than me how could we coincide
A mystery already haunting the barns
At the farmhouse the half-light the door
And suddenly the sunlit kitchen and the smell
Of coffee but the grown-ups nattering on about
How big I\'ve grown but the choice array
Of fancy cakes on the table oilcloth but my uncle Henk
The one that scares me a little at times he pours me
A nip of brandy just a standard prank to needle -
"He\'s just a child!" - my aunts
Oh did he yes he was a prankster
Says auntie oh ah luv\'d tha\' man ah did
though soiled he was back off the land
My eyes lit up whenever I saw him
What\'s that, lad, all of twenty years?
She talks way out of step with my own feeling
As from times past such a strong feeling
Of happiness surges and leaves me already
Sucks vacuum my little soul onder the grey lard
Of recollection I\'m gasping for breath auntie
Just coughing yes eternal colds for the
remained-togetherness lost unsniffably
Wrapped in time yet at times a scent irrepressibly
Tears the cellophane just now something in your voice
Have I got draughts here auntie you bet an old
Upstairs flat chinks and cracks and bare
Floorboards not because we think it\'s warm but looking good
The warmth is past you used to like looking good
But not among the cows but in the jeep you did
That you all used to get to Hoorn for theatre
Lord that cold jeep fancy you still recalling
Before we went I scrubbed it clean of dung and dirt
Thear be th\' milkman now ah\'ll call ye back
Don\'t bother auntie. . . Hung up she has a chat
At the door of her granny house where she
After uncle\'s death close to the children
They thought in their distant village wouldn\'t
Mother like that of course saved her from scrabble
With Corrie Kos and chinwag with my mother
After sixty years with all those people
There is a branch of the Women\'s Institute here
Haven\'t you mother that by now they\'ve all grown up
And small (and dead) and moved away but that is fun
Here\'s brother Piet from yet another village followed
The scent of the old nest and but she can\'t know that yet
Next year her sister Geer (88) from Zeeland will
Join the ranks when her husband
Dies sudden- oh my God there my auntie
Booms out of my answering machine not switched
Off the thing too late so I call her
To finally congratulate her on her eighty-sixth birthday and she me
On my lost years jerk I think regret
Says she why should you for you lose nothing
Recollection takes time out of time
But mother does she never recalls nothing
Oh dear, your mother yes but she keeps up with the times
She keeps track of everything but why should one
It\'s a rotten world as she always says and how
She called me only yesterday but what I\'m saying
There\'s nowt that she an\' ah can do about \'t and then
We\'ve done our bit the children are now grown
(And you two so close to death auntie what is it like
With so much dying dumped just outside your door
The torn-up road the waste beyond
But why does more of me die with you auntie
Than when my mother are you perhaps a narrowly
Defined and undiluted feeling in me and does
My mother dwell in all my brain-cells
Today we coincide again auntie don\'t we
Take me back with you to the hay the heavy smell of cattle
The rattling pail half-light the
Kitchen door coffee) - shit she\'s hung up on me
Of course because I didn\'t answer her
The torn-up line the signals down my spine.
From: In het vertrek
ballad of my aunt calling to wish me
a happy birthday or vice versa
For we were born on the same day a mystery Yet unsolved for she being so much
Older than me how could we coincide
A mystery already haunting the barns
At the farmhouse the half-light the door
And suddenly the sunlit kitchen and the smell
Of coffee but the grown-ups nattering on about
How big I\'ve grown but the choice array
Of fancy cakes on the table oilcloth but my uncle Henk
The one that scares me a little at times he pours me
A nip of brandy just a standard prank to needle -
"He\'s just a child!" - my aunts
Oh did he yes he was a prankster
Says auntie oh ah luv\'d tha\' man ah did
though soiled he was back off the land
My eyes lit up whenever I saw him
What\'s that, lad, all of twenty years?
She talks way out of step with my own feeling
As from times past such a strong feeling
Of happiness surges and leaves me already
Sucks vacuum my little soul onder the grey lard
Of recollection I\'m gasping for breath auntie
Just coughing yes eternal colds for the
remained-togetherness lost unsniffably
Wrapped in time yet at times a scent irrepressibly
Tears the cellophane just now something in your voice
Have I got draughts here auntie you bet an old
Upstairs flat chinks and cracks and bare
Floorboards not because we think it\'s warm but looking good
The warmth is past you used to like looking good
But not among the cows but in the jeep you did
That you all used to get to Hoorn for theatre
Lord that cold jeep fancy you still recalling
Before we went I scrubbed it clean of dung and dirt
Thear be th\' milkman now ah\'ll call ye back
Don\'t bother auntie. . . Hung up she has a chat
At the door of her granny house where she
After uncle\'s death close to the children
They thought in their distant village wouldn\'t
Mother like that of course saved her from scrabble
With Corrie Kos and chinwag with my mother
After sixty years with all those people
There is a branch of the Women\'s Institute here
Haven\'t you mother that by now they\'ve all grown up
And small (and dead) and moved away but that is fun
Here\'s brother Piet from yet another village followed
The scent of the old nest and but she can\'t know that yet
Next year her sister Geer (88) from Zeeland will
Join the ranks when her husband
Dies sudden- oh my God there my auntie
Booms out of my answering machine not switched
Off the thing too late so I call her
To finally congratulate her on her eighty-sixth birthday and she me
On my lost years jerk I think regret
Says she why should you for you lose nothing
Recollection takes time out of time
But mother does she never recalls nothing
Oh dear, your mother yes but she keeps up with the times
She keeps track of everything but why should one
It\'s a rotten world as she always says and how
She called me only yesterday but what I\'m saying
There\'s nowt that she an\' ah can do about \'t and then
We\'ve done our bit the children are now grown
(And you two so close to death auntie what is it like
With so much dying dumped just outside your door
The torn-up road the waste beyond
But why does more of me die with you auntie
Than when my mother are you perhaps a narrowly
Defined and undiluted feeling in me and does
My mother dwell in all my brain-cells
Today we coincide again auntie don\'t we
Take me back with you to the hay the heavy smell of cattle
The rattling pail half-light the
Kitchen door coffee) - shit she\'s hung up on me
Of course because I didn\'t answer her
The torn-up line the signals down my spine.
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