Song for Egidius " Egidius, waer bestu bleven?"

Egidius, where are you now?
I miss you so, the cheerful company
Fate dealt you death, to me was life allowed
Our friendship blossomed from the heart
I thought that we should never part

Now you are raised to heaven's height
Brighter than the sun that shines
And free to savour all delight

Egidius, where are you now?
I miss you so, the cheerful company
Fate dealt you death, to me was life allowed

Pray now for me who still must die
And here on earth face suffering
Keep me a place there by your side
One little song I have to sing
But death must conquer everything

Egidius, where are you now?
I miss you so, the cheerful company
Fate dealt you death, to me was life allowed
Our friendship blossomed from the heart
I thought that we should never part

Jan Moritoen

 

Translation: © Sarah Greeves, 2007

Ballad on the Streets of Buenos Aires

Painting by RachelArts

Ballad on the Streets of Buenos Aires

And a man waits in the street and meets a woman

precise and beautiful as the clock on the wall of her room

and sad and white as the wall that holds it

And she doesn’t show him her teeth

And she doesn’t show him her belly

but she shows him her time, precise and beautiful

And she lives on the ground floor next to the pipes

and the water that rises begins there in her wall

and he has decided on tenderness

And she knows the reasons for weeping

and she knows the reasons for holding back

and he begins to be like her, like her

And his hair will grow long and soft, like her hair

and the hard words of his language dissolve in her mouth

and his eyes will be filled with tears, like her eyes

And the traffic lights are reflected in her face

and she stands there amid the permitted and the forbidden

and he has decided on tenderness

And they walk in the streets that will soon appear in his dreams

and the rain weeps into them silently, as into a pillow,

and impatient time has made them both into prophets

And he will lose her at the red light

and he will lose her at the green and the yellow

and the light is always there to serve every loss

And he won’t be there when soap and lotion run out

and he won’t be there when the clock is set again

and he won’t be there when her dress unravels to threads in the wind

And she will lock his wild letters away in a quiet drawer

and lie down to sleep beside the water in the wall

and she will know the reasons for weeping and for holding back

and he has decided on tenderness

© Yehuda Amichai (vertaal deur Benjamin & Barbara Harshav)

"He prayest well, who loveth well" Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Denys Finch Hatton loved this poem. The lines "He prayeth well, who loveth well /Both man and bird and beast" appear on commemorative brass plaques, once placed by Denys Finch Hatton's brother Toby on the obelisk at Denys's tomb in the Ngong Hills, and still found in Ewerby Church, Lincolnshire, England.

In the movie "Out of Africa" Denys (Robert Redford) recites the lines to Karen Blixen (Meryl Steep) while washing her hair . . . . . . .

From the movie:Out Of Africa

Farewell, farewell ! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest !
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small ;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

The Mariner, whose eye is bright,
Whose beard with age is hoar,
Is gone : and now the Wedding-Guest
Turned from the bridegroom's door.

He went like one that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn :
A sadder and a wiser man,
He rose the morrow morn.

From the poem:The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Dance Me To The End Of Love - Leonard Cohen

 

Painting: RachelArts 

"Dance Me To The End Of Love"

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

A river died of thirst

Photo :Zoriah 
Gaza refugee camp 08-12-08

A river was here

and it had two banks

and a heavenly mother who nursed it on drops from the clouds

A small river moving slowly

descending from the mountain peaks

visiting villages and tents like a charming lively guest

bringing oleander trees and date palms to the valley

and laughing to the nocturnal revellers on its banks:

‘Drink the milk of the clouds

and water the horses

and fly to Jerusalem and Damascus’

Sometimes it sang heroically

at others passionately

It was a river with two banks

and a heavenly mother who nursed it on drops from the clouds

But they kidnapped its mother

so it ran short of water

and died, slowly, of thirst.


© Mahmoud Darwish (vertaal deur Catherine Cobham)

"Sister, there are tears in my throat
and there is fire in my eyes:
I am free.
No more shall I protest at the Sultan's Gate.
All who have died, all who shall die at the Gate of Day
have embraced me, have made of me a weapon."
(from 'Diary of a Palestinian wound')

Valentine

Painting by Cyril Rolando

Valentine

Not a red rose or satin heart.
I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.
Here.
It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your refelction
like a wobbling photo of grief.
I am trying to be truthful.
Not a cute card or a kissogram.
I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
positive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.
Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring,
if you like.
Lethal.
Its sent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.

Carol Ann Duffy

I crave your mouth - Pablo Neruda

Image: "The hug" by Nan Goldin

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair,
Silent, starving I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disquiets me,
I search the liquid sound of your steps all day.

I hunger for your sleek laugh,
For your hands the color of the wild grain,
I hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your loveliness,
The nose, sovereign of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

And I walk hungry, smelling the twilight
Looking for you, for your hot heart,
Like a puma in the barren wilderness.


Pablo Neruda