De Duitse dichter en schrijver Wolfgang Hilbig werd geboren in Meuselwitz op 31 augustus 1941. Zie ook mijn blog van 31 augustus 2007 en ook mijn blog van 31 augustus 2008 en ook mijn blog van 31 augustus 2009 en ook mijn blog van 31 augustus 2010.
fragwürdige rückkehr (altes kesselhaus)
als wär seither noch keine zeit vergangen
faulen im salpeterweiß die selben wände
und in den winkeln wie seit ewigkeiten hangen
die vagen spinnen noch an ihrer fäden ende
die stühle sind mit staub bedeckt und zeigen
wie nah sie dem zerbrechen sind im golde
der sonnenflecken die durch blind zersprungne scheiben
hereingefallen sind im roten abendneigen
es ist als ob ich wiederkommen sollte
und etwas auch als wollt es mich vertreiben
es ist als ob noch keine zeit vergangen wäre
säumnis –
als zögerte noch immer in den wänden
weil ich nicht wegbleib und nicht wiederkehre
ein feuriger wink von geisterhaften händen.
Die Blumenbetrachtung
Fuhren hinaus in den Garten der Herrin
samstags: ich fuhr mit
über Preußens Chausseen
brechend voll von den Kohorten aus Chrom und Blech
umdröhnt von der Freiheit stinkreicher Untertanen –
immer gewärtig jener düster-roten Abendhimmel
und des scharfen trockenen Winds vor Gewittern.
Oh dann folgt ich ihr mit Blicken dort im Garten:
und sie
wie eine Königin schritt sie durch das Licht
um ihre Blumen zu besichtigen
und mit erlesner Wägung dreier Fingerspitzen
anzuheben jedes Blütenhaupt: anzuheben leicht wie Phalli –
so sacht wie dus nicht spüren kannst nicht wahrnimmst
und leichter als es dir im Denken dunkelte am Abend
so ohne Weh:
ach wie ich träumen werde nach dem
Abzug der Gewitter
träumen wie Tau im Licht das sich im Blick der Blüten bricht.
Wolfgang Hilbig (31 augustus 1941 – 2 juni 2007)
De Amerikaanse dichter, criticus en tijdschriftredacteur Raymond P. Hammond werd geboren op 31 augustus 1964 in Roanoke, Virginia. Zie ook mijn blog van 31 augustus 2007 en ook mijn blog van 31 augustus 2008 en ook mijn blog van 31 augustus 2009 en ook mijn blog van 31 augustus 2010.
Uit: The New York Quarterly, Number 64
Living, taking it all in, and then writing.
Existing within that negative capability of Keats: “being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” This is the flux of life where poetry exists, when we just are. We just have to allow it, be it and then write it.
Reporting back that which you have seen in the unity with the self, the ascension of the mountain, God, whatever you want to call it. The difference, it has been said, between a poet and a mystic is that the poet must return from the mountain and tell others what has been seen from the top, the mystic must leap off into oblivion.
“You can’t lead bunny lives and write tiger poetry,” we were constantly chided by William Packard, who lived up to his own teaching in every way. Live life to its fullest, scream that barbaric yawp across every rooftop, savor the sucking of every ounce of that marrow. Contribute that verse to the play of Whitman.
Uncle Walt goes on in his prose piece, A Winter Day on the Sea-Beach, to correlate poetry and life:
“The attractions, fascinations there are in sea and shore! How one dwells on their simplicity, even vacuity! What is it in us, arous’d by those indirections and directions? That spread of waves and gray-white beach, salt, monotonous, senseless—such an entire absence of art, books, talk, elegance—so indescribably comforting, even this winter day—grim, yet so delicate-looking, so spiritual— striking emotional, impalpable depths, subtler than all the poems, paintings, music I have ever read, seen, heard. (Yet let me be fair, perhaps it is because I have read those poems and heard that music.)”
Real life, real poetry infinitely intertwined.”
Raymond P. Hammond (Roanoke, 31 augustus 1964)
De Engelse schrijfster Elizabeth von Arnim werd op 31 augustus 1866 geboren in Kirribilli Point in de buurt van Sydney. Zie ook mijn blog van 31 augustus 2007 en ook mijn blog van 31 augustus 2008 en ook mijn blog van 31 augustus 2009 en ook mijn blog van 31 augustus 2010.
Uit:The Solitary Summer
“It isn’t going to freeze, and I won’t look at anything until you have told me what you think of my idea. Wouldn’t a whole lovely summer, quite alone, be delightful? Wouldn’t it be perfect to get up every morning for weeks and feel that you belong to yourself and to nobody else?” And I went over to him and put a hand on each shoulder and gave him a little shake, for he persisted in gazing at the stars just as though I had not been there. “Please, Man of Wrath, say something long for once,” I entreated; “you haven’t said a good long sentence for a week.”
He slowly brought his gaze from the stars down to me and smiled. Then he drew me on to his knee.
“Don’t get affectionate,” I urged; “it is words, not deeds, that I want. But I’ll stay here if you’ll talk.”
“Well then, I will talk. What am I to say? You know you do as you please, and I never interfere with you. If you do not want to have any one here this summer you will not have any one, but you will find it a very long summer.”
“No, I won’t.”
“And if you lie on the heath all day, people will think you are mad.”
“What do I care what people think?”
“No, that is true. But you will catch cold, and your little nose will swell.”
“Let it swell.”
“And when it is hot you will be sunburnt and your skin spoilt.”
“I don’t mind my skin.”
“And you will be dull.”
“Dull?”
It often amuses me to reflect how very little the Man of Wrath really knows me. Here we have been three years buried in the country, and I as happy as a bird the whole time. I say as a bird, because other people have used the simile to describe absolute cheerfulness, although I do not believe birds are any happier than any one else, and they quarrel disgracefully. I have been as happy then, we will say, as the best of birds, and have had seasons of solitude at intervals before now during which dull is the last word to describe my state of mind.“
Elizabethvon Arnim (31 augustus 1866 – 9 februari 1941)
De Amerikaanse dichter en schrijver William Saroyan werd geboren op 31 augustus 1908 in Fresno, Californië. Zie ook mijn blog van 31 augustus 2010 en eveneens alle tags voor William Saroyan op dit blog.
To the River Euphrates
Euphrates, which is mine, doth flow or not,
There where its mountains feed its rush and roar.
And through those hills and plains by most forgot,
And by these eyes not seen, for evermore
Euphrates swells and rolls majestically,
Or is now dry, and arid myth, a tale.
If this is so, the truth, so let it be.
In me Euphrates is; nor can it fail
To ride its bed and cool its burning earth
With drink, and mine as well. Of wing no flight
May end in graceless crash. No spirit’s mirth
May burn and die by heaven’s harshest light.
Euphrates flows, however it may be
That but in dreams these eyes its grace may see.
San Francisco, California
January 21, 1933
To Lake Van
Lake Van, O inland sea my father saw
With stinging eyes and steadfast blurring stare,
Our hearts unite in race’s filial prayer.
His blood to mine restores that fearful awe
He felt as he from homeland’s shore turned west,
Smothering harsh and violent farewell.
O lake and symbol of our grief, they spell
With growing strength denies all easy rest.
He from his spirit’s soil took lasting leave,
From heavens that his legend had sustained,
And though he left and died, there he remained
In his young ghost, above thy cool grieve,
Lament and weep in mists and pouring rains,
O Lake and pool of all your mortal pains.
San Francisco, California
April 7, 1933
William Saroyan (31 augustus 1908 – 18 mei 1981)
De Franse dichter en schrijver Théophile Gautier werd op 31 augustus 1811 geboren in Tarbes (departement Hautes-Pyrénées. Zie ook mijn blog van 31 augustus 2010 en eveneens alle tags voor Théophile Gautierop dit blog.
Baiser rose, baiser bleu
À table, l’autre jour, un réseau de guipure,
Comme un filet d’argent sur un marbre jeté,
De votre sein, voilant à demi la beauté,
Montrait, sous sa blancheur, une blancheur plus pure.
Vous trôniez parmi nous, radieuse figure,
Et le baiser du soir, d’un faible azur teinté,
Comme au contour d’un fruit la fleur du velouté,
Glissait sur votre épaule en mince découpure.
Mais la lampe allumée et se mêlant au jeu,
Posait un baiser rose auprès du baiser bleu :
Tel brille au clair de lune un feu dans de l’albâtre.
À ce charmant tableau, je me disais, rêveur,
Jaloux du reflet rose et du reflet bleuâtre :
” Ô trop heureux reflets, s’ils savaient leur bonheur ! “
A une robe rose
Que tu me plais dans cette robe
Qui te déshabille si bien,
Faisant jaillir ta gorge en globe,
Montrant tout nu ton bras païen !
Frêle comme une aile d’abeille,
Frais comme un coeur de rose-thé,
Son tissu, caresse vermeille,
Voltige autour de ta beauté.
De l’épiderme sur la soie
Glissent des frissons argentés,
Et l’étoffe à la chair renvoie
Ses éclairs roses reflétés.
D’où te vient cette robe étrange
Qui semble faite de ta chair,
Trame vivante qui mélange
Avec ta peau son rose clair ?
Est-ce à la rougeur de l’aurore,
A la coquille de Vénus,
Au bouton de sein près d’éclore,
Que sont pris ces tons inconnus ?
Ou bien l’étoffe est-elle teinte
Dans les roses de ta pudeur ?
Non ; vingt fois modelée et peinte,
Ta forme connaît sa splendeur.
Jetant le voile qui te pèse,
Réalité que l’art rêva,
Comme la princesse Borghèse
Tu poserais pour Canova.
Et ces plis roses sont les lèvres
De mes désirs inapaisés,
Mettant au corps dont tu les sèvres
Une tunique de baisers.
Théophile Gautier (31 augustus 1811 – 23 oktober 1872)