Dolce far niente, Ursula Wölfel, Daniël Rovers, Maarten van der Graaff, E. E. Cummings, Péter Nádas

 

 Dolce far niente

 

 
October Light door Ernest Principato, z.j.

 

Oktober

Oktober kommt mit blauem Rauch
der Wind will Äpfel pflücken
und gelbe Birnen gibt es auch
und süßes reift im Brommbeerstrauch
du brauchst dich nur zu bücken

So rot und gold wie Feuerschein
steht nun der Wald am Hügel.
Das Eichhorn sammelt Nüsse ein,
der Falter sitzt am warmen Stein
und breitet weit die Flügel.

ein Spinnwebfaden fließt im Wald
es rascheld auf den Wegen
der Häher schreit die Nacht wird kalt
und auf die Wiesen wird sich bald
der erste Raureif legen.

 


Ursula Wölfel (16 september 1922 – 23 juli 2014)
Het raadhuis in Duisburg-Hamborn, de geboorteplaats van Ursula Wölfel

 

De Nederlandse schrijver Daniël Rovers werd geboren in Zelhem op 14 oktober 1975. Zie ook alle tags voot Daniël Rovers op dit blog.

Uit: De waren

“In een donkerblauwe tent op een camping in het door elzenhagen omzoomde zuidoosten van Engeland, liggend in een slaapzak met een vanillevlagele voering op een oprolbaar eiermatras, had ik ooit een droom die me altijd is bijgebleven.
Was het wel een droom? Op het moment dat ik mijn ogen opende en naar het wit van de binnentent keek, kon ik niet eens met zekerheid zeggen of ik het me die nacht allemaal alleen maar had verbeeld. Ik lag op mijn rug, richtte mijn ogen op de tentstok en hoorde mijn broer zo zwaar ademen dat het leek alsof hij één grote luchtpijp geworden was. Ik was tien jaar oud. Aan de andere kant van het doek floot een vogel onvermoeibaar steeds opnieuw dezelfde wijs.
Wat ik had meegemaakt was zo overweldigend echt dat ik ervan overtuigd was dat het waar moest zijn of in ieder geval binnen niet al te lange tijd waar zou worden. Iets of iemand had een gat in mijn bestaan geslagen en door de opening kreeg ik toegang tot een ruimte waarvan ik het bestaan niet eens had vermoed, een wereld die altijd al verborgen had gelegen onder de huid die de mijne werd genoemd. Opeens was alles anders geworden, ikzelf het meest.
Niet dat er, zoals dat in de boeken heet, in mijn slaap aan een verkeerd gelegen been een vrouw of een man was ontstaan, ik had een ander, minder tastbaar soort volwassenheid ervaren. Ik had geen avonturen beleefd of horrorscenario’s doorstaan, was niet van grote hoogte naar beneden geduwd en had me niet uit alle macht wakker hoeven te denken voordat ik te pletter stortte op de grond, wat me in nachtmerries nooit op tijd lukte, zodat ik altijd weer stierf en daarna kon vaststellen dat ik het had overleefd, eerder bedroefd vanwege het eenzame einde dan gelukkig met de onverwacht goede afloop.
Middagen en avonden lang had ik met een jongen en een meisje gesproken die ik daarvoor nooit had gezien. We luisterden naar elkaars verhalen, lachten om de grappen, voerden ernstige gesprekken – en juist dat was het vreemde eraan. Een dag eerder had ik niet geweten hoe je dat zou moeten doen, een gesprek voeren, ik moet het in één nacht tijd hebben geleerd.
We kwamen bij elkaar in een grote, diepe achtertuin met aan de uiterste rand, daar waar het bos begon, een rij hoge dennenbomen. We zaten rond een vuurtje van gesprokkelde takken en keken naar de vlammen en het smeulende hout. Ouders, broers en zussen – ze kwamen niet kijken, ze lieten ons met rust.

 


Daniël Rovers (Zelhem, 14 oktober 1975)

 

De Nederlandse dichter en schrijver Maarten van der Graaff werd geboren op 14 oktober 1987 in Dirksland. Zie ook alle tags voor Maarten van der Graaff op dit blog.

Hypochonder aan de slag

In de hemel stonden
de doden als plechtige dundrukken kakel-
wit te zijn met elkaar.
Dat was een kinderziekte.

Nu weet ik: het is alles ongeremde
uiteenval. Een opluchting, zeker,
toch mag ik gerust
tot de kortademigen worden gerekend.

Achter al het gezwoeg klinkt
de zoemende almacht van de
versnipperaar.
Niets mooier dan dat, begrijp me goed.

Niets vind ik lekkerder dan de orde
van een lukrake

verse ontbinding.

 

Voor de verachters van de binnenkamer

Waarom ga ik nog altijd naar buiten,
ik weet wat daar is.
De langgerekte fluittoon de aangrenzende
resten, de drooggekookte klaarheid der dingen:
precieze verhoudingen.

En daar heb ik dus een schijthekel aan
(een regenbui balsemt milddadig)
dat alles is zoals het is

waarom ga ik nog wandelen, om een esdoorn in zijn esdoorn-zijn
te sterken? (hierachter sterven er geruisloos)

de esdoorn moet zijn eigen rottige zelf maar toeknikken

 


Maarten van der Graaff (Dirksland, 14 oktober 1987)

 

De Amerikaanse dichter en schrijver Edward Estlin Cummings werd geboren in Cambridge, Massachusetts op 14 oktober 1894. Zie ook alle tags voor E. E. Cummings op dit blog.

 

Summer Silence

Eruptive lightnings flutter to and fro
Above the heights of immemorial hills;
Thirst-stricken air, dumb-throated, in its woe
Limply down-sagging, its limp body spills
Upon the earth. A panting silence fills
The empty vault of Night with shimmering bars
Of sullen silver, where the lake distils
Its misered bounty.—Hark! No whisper mars
The utter silence of the untranslated stars.

 

as freedom is a breakfastfood

as freedom is a breakfastfood
or truth can live with right and wrong
or molehills are from mountains made
—long enough and just so long
will being pay the rent of seem
and genius please the talentgang
and water most encourage flame

as hatracks into peachtrees grow
or hopes dance best on bald men’s hair
and every finger is a toe
and any courage is a fear
—long enough and just so long
will the impure think all things pure
and hornets wail by children stung

or as the seeing are the blind
and robins never welcome spring
nor flatfolk prove their world is round
nor dingsters die at break of dong
and common’s rare and millstones float
—long enough and just so long
tomorrow will not be too late

worms are the words but joy’s the voice
down shall go which and up come who
breasts will be breasts thighs will be thighs
deeds cannot dream what dreams can do
—time is a tree(this life one leaf)
but love is the sky and i am for you
just so long and long enough

 

the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls

the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds
(also, with the church’s protestant blessings
daughters, unscented shapeless spirited)
they believe in Christ and Longfellow,both dead,
are invariably interested in so many things-
at the present writing one still finds
delighted fingers knitting for the is it Poles?
perhaps. While permanent faces coyly bandy
scandal of Mrs. N and Professor D
….the Cambridge ladies do not care,above
Cambridge if sometimes in its box of
sky lavender and cornerless, the
moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy

 


E. E. Cummings (14 oktober 1894 – 3 september 1962)
Cover

 

De Hongaarse schrijver Péter Nádas werd geboren op 14 oktober 1942 in Boedapest. Zie ook alle tags voor Péter Nádas op dit blog.

Uit: Parallel Stories (Vertaald door Imre Goldstein)

“He was not cold, yet his whole body was shivering. The plainclothes officer offered him a blanket, go on, wrap it around yourself, but he rejected it with an irritated gesture, as if the condition of his body, an impending cold or the awk-ward and embarrassing shivering, did not interest him in the least. He probably had some kind of nervous fever, a phenomenon not unfamiliar to law-enforcement people. Neither could he be certain of the impression he was making. He felt he was not making a good one, which in turn compelled him to present every-thing in ever greater detail. This last policeman, however, regarded him with delight, with an enthusiasm bordering on love, as he observed the agitation in the young man’s facial features, body, and individual limbs, and his ceaseless gesticulation, wondering whether to think of him as choleric or ascetic, as someone with above-average intelligence and sensitivity or simply as a city idiot interested only in himself. As a person so starved for speech that he could not stop before tomorrow. As one to whom nothing ever happened but who now was becoming tangled in a suddenly arrived great adventure; as one entrusted with nothing less than the secrets of thc universe. He elicited pity and some worry. In the end he could talk only to this one police officer, but he completely enthralled him with his feverish words, his ve-hement but disciplined and therefore fractured gestures, and his mental makeup that defied classification. After methodically scanning the various surfaces and points of the young man’s body and attire, and because the observed exterior seemed so average that even its social situation would prove hard to determine, this detective asked the young man which university he was attending and what he was studying, slyly adding that he asked not officially but only as a private person. Theoreti-cally he had no right to pose such a question, but he knew from experience that sometimes a few innocent words will stanch sickly and senseless gushing. The death of strangers can cause real hysteria even in the most endomorphic persons. At the same time he did not mean the question to be a formal one; he was interested to see how the young man might be steered by such an in-nocent query, how far he might be led from his self-admiration, or perhaps how he could be trapped; how tractable he was. Although he was one of those well-trained detectives who usually avoided being misled by an unex-pectedly deep impression or a labyrinthine imagination, the plainclothesman could not resist the experiment, at least to the extent of asking, the provocative question.”

 

 
Péter Nádas (Boedapest,14 oktober 1942)

 

Zie voor nog meer schrijvers van de 14e oktober ook mijn vorige blog van vandaag.

E. E. Cummings, Maarten van der Graaff, Daniël Rovers, Péter Nádas, Katha Pollitt, Katherine Mansfield, Margarete Susman, Stefan Żeromski, Philip Winkler

De Amerikaanse dichter en schrijver Edward Estlin Cummings werd geboren in Cambridge, Massachusetts op 14 oktober 1894. Zie ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2010 en eveneens alle tags voor E. E. Cummings op dit blog.

maggie and milly and molly and may

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

 

Spring is like a perhaps hand

Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)and

without breaking anything.

 

9

there are so many tictoc
clocks everywhere telling people
what toctic time it is for
tictic instance five toc minutes toc
past six tic

Spring is not regulated and does
not get out of order nor do
its hands a little jerking move
over numbers slowly

we do not
wind it up it has no weights
springs wheels inside of
its slender self no indeed dear
nothing of the kind.

(So,when kiss Spring comes
we’ll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss
lips because tic clocks toc don’t make
a toctic difference
to kisskiss you and to
kiss me)

 
E. E. Cummings (14 oktober 1894 – 3 september 1962)
Cover

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E. E. Cummings, Maarten van der Graaff, Péter Nádas, Katha Pollitt, Daniël Rovers, Katherine Mansfield, Margarete Susman, Stefan Żeromski

De Amerikaanse dichter en schrijver Edward Estlin Cummings werd geboren in Cambridge, Massachusetts op 14 oktober 1894. Zie ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2010 en eveneens alle tags voor E. E. Cummings op dit blog.

My Love

my love
thy hair is one kingdom
the king whereof is darkness
thy forehead is a flight of flowers

thy head is a quick forest
  filled with sleeping birds
thy breasts are swarms of white bees
  upon the bough of thy body
thy body to me is April
in whose armpits is the approach of spring

thy thighs are white horses yoked to a chariot
  of kings
they are the striking of a good minstrel
between them is always a pleasant song

my love
thy head is a casket
  of the cool jewel of thy mind
the hair of thy head is one warrior
  innocent of defeat
thy hair upon thy shoulders is an army
  with victory and with trumpets

thy legs are the trees of dreaming
whose fruit is the very eatage of forgetfulness

thy lips are satraps in scarlet
  in whose kiss is the combinings of kings
thy wrists
are holy
  which are the keepers of the keys of thy blood
thy feet upon thy ankles are flowers in vases
  of silver

in thy beauty is the dilemma of flutes

  thy eyes are the betrayal
of bells comprehended through incense

 

Who Knows If The Moon’s

who knows if the moon’s
a baloon,coming out of a keen city
in the sky—filled with pretty people?
(and if you and i should

get into it,if they
should take me and take you into their baloon,
why then
we’d go up higher with all the pretty people

than houses and steeples and clouds:
go sailing
away and away sailing into a keen
city which nobody’s ever visited,where

always
            it’s
                   Spring)and everyone’s
in love and flowers pick themselves

 
E. E. Cummings (14 oktober 1894 – 3 september 1962)
Zelfportret 1958

Lees verder “E. E. Cummings, Maarten van der Graaff, Péter Nádas, Katha Pollitt, Daniël Rovers, Katherine Mansfield, Margarete Susman, Stefan Żeromski”

E. E. Cummings, Maarten van der Graaff, Péter Nádas, Katha Pollitt, Daniël Rovers, Katherine Mansfield

De Amerikaanse dichter en schrijver Edward Estlin Cummings werd geboren in Cambridge, Massachusetts op 14 oktober 1894. Zie ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2010 en eveneens alle tags voor E. E. Cummings op dit blog.

As Is The Sea Marvelous

as is the sea marvelous
from god’s
hands which sent her forth
to sleep upon the world

and the earth withers
the moon crumbles
one by one
stars flutter into dust

but the sea
does not change
and she goes forth out of hands and
she returns into hands

and is with sleep….

love,
    the breaking

of your
        soul
        upon
my lips

 

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

 

My Mind Is

my mind is
a big hunk of irrevocable nothing which touch and
taste and smell and hearing and sight keep hitting and
chipping with sharp fatal tools
in an agony of sensual chisels i perform squirms of
chrome and execute strides of cobalt
nevertheless i
feel that i cleverly am being altered that i slightly am
becoming something a little different, in fact
myself
Hereupon helpless i utter lilac shrieks and scarlet
bellowings.

 
E. E. Cummings (14 oktober 1894 – 3 september 1962)
Als student in Harvard, 1915

Lees verder “E. E. Cummings, Maarten van der Graaff, Péter Nádas, Katha Pollitt, Daniël Rovers, Katherine Mansfield”

E. E. Cummings, Péter Nádas, Katha Pollitt, Daniël Rovers, Katherine Mansfield, Margarete Susman, Stefan Żeromski

De Amerikaanse dichter en schrijver Edward Estlin Cummings werd geboren in Cambridge, Massachusetts op 14 oktober 1894. Zie ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2010 en eveneens alle tags voor E. E. Cummings op dit blog.

 

In The Rain-

in the rain-
darkness,     the sunset
being sheathed i sit and
think of you

the holy
city which is your face
your little cheeks the streets
of smiles

your eyes half-
thrush
half-angel and your drowsy
lips where float flowers of kiss

and
there is the sweet shy pirouette
your hair
and then

your dancesong
soul.     rarely-beloved
a single star is
uttered,and i

think
       of you

 

 

I Like My Body When It Is With Your

i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body.  i like what it does,
i like its hows.  i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones,and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the,shocking fuzz
of your electric furr,and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh….And eyes big love-crumbs,

and possibly i like the thrill

of under me you so quite new

 

 

It Is Funny, You Will Be Dead Some Day

it is funny, you will be dead some day.
By you the mouth hair eyes,and i mean
the unique and nervously obscene

need;it’s funny.  They will all be dead

knead of lustfulhunched deeplytoplay
lips and stare the gross fuzzy-pash
—dead—and the dark gold delicately smash….
grass,and the stars,of my shoulder in stead.

It is a funny,thing.  And you will be

and i and all the days and nights that matter
knocked by sun moon jabbed jerked with ecstasy
….tremble (not knowing how much better

than me will you like the rain’s face and

the rich improbable hands of the Wind)

 

E. E. Cummings (14 oktober 1894 – 3 september 1962)

Zelfportret, 1958

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E. E. Cummings, Péter Nádas, Katha Pollitt, Daniël Rovers

De Amerikaanse dichter en schrijver Edward Estlin Cummings werd geboren in Cambridge, Massachusetts op 14 oktober 1894. Zie ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2010 en eveneens alle tags voor E. E. Cummings op dit blog.

 

if you like my poems let them

if you like my poems let them
walk in the evening,a little behind you

then people will say
“Along this road i saw a princess pass
on her way to meet her lover(it was
toward nightfall)with tall and ignorant servants.”

 

my father moved through dooms of love

my father moved through dooms of love
through sames of am through haves of give,
singing each morning out of each night
my father moved through depths of height

this motionless forgetful where
turned at his glance to shining here;
that if(so timid air is firm)
under his eyes would stir and squirm

newly as from unburied which
floats the first who,his april touch
drove sleeping selves to swarm their fates
woke dreamers to their ghostly roots

and should some why completely weep
my father’s fingers brought her sleep:
vainly no smallest voice might cry
for he could feel the mountains grow.

Lifting the valleys of the sea
my father moved through griefs of joy;
praising a forehead called the moon
singing desire into begin

joy was his song and joy so pure
a heart of star by him could steer
and pure so now and now so yes
the wrists of twilight would rejoice

keen as midsummer’s keen beyond
conceiving mind of sun will stand,
so strictly(over utmost him
so hugely) stood my father’s dream

his flesh was flesh his blood was blood:
no hungry man but wished him food;
no cripple wouldn’t creep one mile
uphill to only see him smile.

Scorning the Pomp of must and shall
my father moved through dooms of feel;
his anger was as right as rain
his pity was as green as grain

septembering arms of year extend
yes humbly wealth to foe and friend
than he to foolish and to wise
offered immeasurable is

proudly and(by octobering flame
beckoned)as earth will downward climb,
so naked for immortal work
his shoulders marched against the dark

his sorrow was as true as bread:
no liar looked him in the head;
if every friend became his foe
he’d laugh and build a world with snow.

My father moved through theys of we,
singing each new leaf out of each tree
(and every child was sure that spring
danced when she heard my father sing)

then let men kill which cannot share,
let blood and flesh be mud and mire,
scheming imagine,passion willed,
freedom a drug that’s bought and sold

giving to steal and cruel kind,
a heart to fear,to doubt a mind,
to differ a disease of same,
conform the pinnacle of am

though dull were all we taste as bright,
bitter all utterly things sweet,
maggoty minus and dumb death
all we inherit,all bequeath

and nothing quite so least as truth
–i say though hate were why men breathe–
because my Father lived his soul
love is the whole and more than all

E. E. Cummings (14 oktober 1894 – 3 september 1962)

Self-portrait with sketchpad, 1939

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E. E. Cummings, Péter Nádas, Katha Pollitt, Daniël Rovers

De Amerikaanse dichter en schrijver Edward Estlin Cummings werd geboren in Cambridge, Massachusetts op 14 oktober 1894. Zie ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2008 en ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2009 en ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2010.

 

“Gay” is the captivating cognomen

“Gay” is the captivating cognomen of a Young Woman of cambridge,

mass.

to whom nobody seems to have mentioned ye olde freudian wish;

when i contemplate her uneyes safely ensconced in thick glass

you try if we are a gentleman not to think of(sh)

the world renowned investigator of paper sailors–argonauta argo

harmoniously being with his probably most brilliant pupil mated,

let us not deem it miraculous if their(so to speak)offspring has that largo

appearance of somebody who was hectocotyliferously propagated

when Miss G touched n.y. our skeleton stepped from his cupboard

gallantly offering to demonstrate the biggest best busiest city

and presently found himself rattling for that well known suburb

the bronx(enlivening an otherwise dead silence with harmless quips, out

of Briggs by Kitty)

arriving in an exhausted condition, i purchased two bags of lukewarm

peanuts

with the dime which her mama had generously provided(despite courte-

ous protestations)

and offering Miss Gay one(which she politely refused)set out gaily for

the hyenas

suppressing my frank qualms in deference to her not inobvious perturba-

tions

unhappily, the denizens of the zoo were that day inclined to be uncouthly

erotic

more particularly the primates–from which with dignity square feet

turned abruptly Miss Gay away:

“on the whole”(if you will permit a metaphor savouring slightly of the

demotic)

Miss Gay had nothing to say to the animals and the animals had nothing

to say to Miss Gay

during our return voyage, my pensive companion dimly remarlted some-

thing about “stuffed

fauna” being “very interesting” . . . we also discussed the possibility of

rain. . .

E distant proximity to a Y.W.c.a. she suddenly luffed

–thanking me; and(stating that she hoped we might “meet again

sometime”)vanished, gunwale awash. I thereupon loosened my collar

and dove for the nearest l; surreptitiously cogitating

the dictum of a new england sculptor(well on in life)re the helen moller

dancers, whom he considered “elevating–that is, if dancing CAN be ele-

vating”

Miss(believe it or)Gay is a certain Young Woman unacquainted with the

libido

and pursuing a course of instruction at radcliffe college, cambridge, mass.

i try if you are a gentleman not to sense something un poco putrido

when we contemplate her uneyes safely ensconced in thick glass

 


E. E. Cummings (14 oktober 1894 – 3 september 1962)

Portret doorJohn Bedford

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E. E. Cummings, Péter Nádas, Katha Pollitt, Katherine Mansfield, Margarete Susman, Stefan Żeromski

De Amerikaanse dichter en schrijver Edward Estlin Cummings werd geboren in Cambridge, Massachusetts op 14 oktober 1894. Zie ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2008 en ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2009.

the boys i mean are not refined

the boys i mean are not refined
they go with girls who buck and bite
they do not give a fuck for luck
they hump them thirteen times a night

one hangs a hat upon her tit
one carves a cross on her behind
they do not give a shit for wit
the boys i mean are not refined

they come with girls who bite and buck
who cannot read and cannot write
who laugh like they would fall apart
and masturbate with dynamite

the boys i mean are not refined
they cannot chat of that and this
they do not give a fart for art
they kill like you would take a piss

they speak whatever’s on their mind
they do whatever’s in their pants
the boys i mean are not refined
they shake the mountains when they dance

 

why must itself up every of a park    

why must itself up every of a park
anus stick some quote statue unquote to
prove that a hero equals any jerk
who was afraid to dare to answer “no”?
quote citizens unquote might otherwise
forget(to err is human;to forgive
divine)that if the quote state unquote says
“kill” killing is an act of christian love.
“Nothing” in 1944 AD
“can stand against the argument of mil
itary necessity”(generalissimo e)
and echo answers “there is no appeal
from reason”(freud)–you pays your money and
you doesn’t take your choice. Ain’t freedom grand

 

Als

Als sproetjes lieftallig zijn, en dag nacht is,
En mazelen mooi zijn en een leugen geen leugen is,
Dan zou ’t leven heerlijk zijn,–
Maar de dingen zouden niet kloppen
Want in zo’n droeve staat
Zou ik geen ik zijn.

Als de aarde hemel is, en nu toen is,
En verleden heden is, en vals waar is,
Dan klopt dit in zekere zin,
Al zou ik in twijfel zijn,
Want met zo’n voorwendsels
Zou jij niet jij zijn.

Als angst moedig is, en globes vierkant zijn,
En vuil proper is, en tranen vrolijk zijn
Dan zou alles fraai lijken,–
Toch zou iedereen vertwijfeld zijn,
Want als hier daar zou zijn
Dan zouden wij geen wij zijn.

 

Vertaald door Lepus

cummings

 E. E. Cummings (14 oktober 1894 – 3 september 1962)

 

De Hongaarse schrijver Péter Nádas werd geboren op 14 oktober 1942 in Boedapest. Zie ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2008 en ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2009.

Uit: A Lovely Tale Of Photography (Vertaald door Imre Goldstein)

“SILENCE   On the black-lacquered short column the flowers are displayed in a new bowl. They may be the same kinds of flowers, though they are arranged differently.

And there is a voice.

“The rebellious soul afflicts itself with thirst, hunger, and silence, but the rational world can be neither punished nor driven off its course. People shamelessly eat and drink, say the proper words, belch and fart — because they are digesting — and under the cover of night they beget children; minute follows minute, the hours pass, filling up with themselves, and who would brood over time that is out of joint?”

Kornélia is standing in the open door of the terrace; an anxious Henriette is behind her.

“Kornélia, my sweet, I beg you, hold on to your senses.”

And there is also a voice.

“A daydreaming Kornélia was standing in the open door of the terrace, loyal Henriette behind her. Two lovely human statues. One is rebellious silence itself, the other the guardian angel of bounden duty.”

And then, on the steps leading to the terrace, appears the elderly lady, accompanied by the young man who had so much reminded Kornélia of Károly.

“Please, let us go and welcome them.”

While they proceed, the voice is heard.

“Of course we must immediately note that neither the girl nor the young man had desired this meeting; it was a scheme — to break Kornélia’s morbid silence — devised by Henriette and abetted by the wily Chief Surgeon.”

Henriette and the elderly lady exchange amiable smiles and, by way of greeting, as befits the situation, bow their heads. The girl and the youth remain aloof; as their partners halt, so do they, to avoid a collision, yet they appear not to see each other.

“We’ve been out for a whole hour, man ist aber nicht zu erfüllen, von diesem dahinschleichenden, wunderbaren Wetter. How do you like this wonderful weather we’re having?”

“In den Bergen gibt es ja immer das leichte Lüftchen, nicht mehr als einen leisen Hauch, just enough to cool off this late heat wave. Kornélia is absolutely overjoyed.”

 nadas.jpg

Péter Nádas (Boedapest,14 oktober 1942)

 

De Amerikaanse dichteres, essayiste, critica en feministe Katha Pollitt werd geboren op 14 oktober 1949 in New York. Zie ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2008 en ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2009.

Lot’s Wife

Trudging behind the broad backside of God
she hums her useless tune
Oh little black dress at the back of the closet,
who will crush you now against his chest?

Green Italian boots in a midnight window,
a scrabble of rats, a hand
lit from within like a tulip—
Who dashes down that street to meet her lover?
Who sits in the movie theatre
coiled, silent, a black cat?

The dark-eyed daughters idly stroke their breasts.
A jackal crouches in shadow, hungry for salt.
At the base of a dune that heaves to the blank horizon
a palm tree shrugs its shoulders
as if to say: Well, what did you expect?

 

What I Understood

When I was a child I understood everything
about, for example, futility. Standing for hours
on the hot asphalt outfield, trudging for balls
I’d ask myself, how many times will I have to perform
this pointless task, and all the others? I knew
about snobbery, too, and cruelty—for children
are snobbish and cruel—and loneliness: in restaurants
the dignity and shame of solitary diners
disabled me, and when my grandmother
screamed at me, “Someday you’ll know what it’s like!”
I knew she was right, the way I knew
about the single rooms my teachers went home to,
the pictures on the dresser, the hoard of chocolates,
and that there was no God, and that I would die.
All this I understood, no one needed to tell me.
the only thing I didn’t understand
was how in a world whose predominant characteristics
are futility, cruelty, loneliness, disappointment
people are saved every day
by a sparrow, a foghorn, a grassblade, a tablecloth.
This year I’ll be
thirty-nine, and I still don’t understand it.

pollitt

Katha Pollitt (New York,14 oktober 1949)

 

De Nieuw-Zeelandse schrijfster Katherine Mansfield werd geboren op 14 oktober 1888 in Wellington. Zie ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2006 en ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2007 en ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2008 en ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2009.

Uit: The Young Girl

In her blue dress, with her cheeks lightly flushed, her blue, blue eyes, and her gold curls pinned up as though for the first time–pinned up to be out of the way for her flight–Mrs. Raddick’s daughter might have just dropped from this radiant heaven. Mrs. Raddick’s timid, faintly astonished, but deeply admiring glance looked as if she believed it, too; but the daughter didn’t appear any too pleased–why should she?–to have alighted on the steps of the Casino. Indeed, she was bored–bored as though Heaven had been full of casinos with snuffy old saints for croupiers and crowns to play with.

“You don’t mind taking Hennie?” said Mrs. Raddick. “Sure you don’t?
There’s the car, and you’ll have tea and we’ll be back here on this step– right here–in an hour. You see, I want her to go in. She’s not been before, and it’s worth seeing. I feel it wouldn’t be fair to her.”

“Oh, shut up, mother,” said she wearily. “Come along. Don’t talk so much. And your bag’s open; you’ll be losing all your money again.”

“I’m sorry, darling,” said Mrs. Raddick.

“Oh, do come in! I want to make money,” said the impatient voice. “It’s all jolly well for you–but I’m broke!”

“Here–take fifty francs, darling, take a hundred!” I saw Mrs. Raddick pressing notes into her hand as they passed through the swing doors. Hennie and I stood on the steps a minute, watching the people. He had a very broad, delighted smile.

“I say,” he cried, “there’s an English bulldog. Are they allowed to take dogs in there?”

“No, they’re not.”

“He’s a ripping chap, isn’t he? I wish I had one. They’re such fun. They frighten people so, and they’re never fierce with their–the people they belong to.” Suddenly he squeezed my arm. “I say, do look at that old woman. Who is she? Why does she look like that? Is she a gambler?”

 mansfield

Katherine Mansfield (14 oktober 1888 – 9 januari 1923)

 

De Duitse dichteres, schrijfster en filosofe Margarete Susman werd geboren op  14 oktober 1872 in Hamburg. Zie ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2009.

Uit: Davids Tod

(Ein großes dunkles Gewölbe; links schwach erhellt auf prunkvollen Bett der sterbende König mit geschlossenen Augen.
Sonst ist nichts im Zimmer zu erkennen. Im Hintergrund recht zusammengekauert Abisag von Sunem)

David:
Schatten des Todes riesengroß
Umschwirren mein Haupt.
Was sind wir? Rinnender Sand,
Verwehen, Verstieben,
Hinsinkendes Nichts –
Und die uns binden, die uralten Engel des Lichts
Und sammeln die Häufchen rinnenden Sandes
Zum Anschaun des ewigen Landes –
Wer begriff ihr heiliges Band
In solcher Stunde? –
Wer – wer vermag aus des Abgrunds Grunde
Zu lieben?

Wo ist sie, die leichte blühende Flamme
In tausend Gestalten,
In der ich mich fand?
Hier ist düsteres Land.
Irrend und schwirrend, gestaltlos wogend,
Flackernd gleitet es um mich her.
Will es sich bilden? will es mich bilden?
Ich weiß seinen Namen nicht mehr.
Es hat mich zu tief in sich selbst gezogen,
Es hat mir zu viele Gestalten von mir gelogen.
Wer bin ich? Was hält mich die diesem Gefilden?
Wo ist sie, die stumme verhüllte Gestalt
In mir, die mich trüge?
Des Meinen klare Gewalt?
Wo bist Du mein Bruder? Ich sehe Dich nicht.
Du verrinnst mir in Dunkel und Licht –
Wo sind sie – wo sind Deine heilig geliebten Züge?
Weh mir – ich finde nur Schatten,
Ich finde nur Geister,
Wo ist, der sie schafft?
Wo ist er, ihr einig weisender Führer,
Der Schatten lebenspendender Berührer,
Daß ich zu seinen Füßen sinke,
Seine Klarheit trinke
In lebendigem reinem Ermatten?
Wehe – dichter und dichter
Umdrängt mich der Schatten
Atembeklemmende Todesgewalt –
(Er erblicht Abisag, die in den Lichtkreis tritt)
Gestalt! Gestalt!
Welch ewiger Strahl
Von göttlicher Reine zerreißt die Nacht!
Ein Strom lebendiger Tränen
Entstürzt dem geblendeten Aug
Und ich sehe.
Ich sehe Dich, o Schwester –
Aus ewiger Wogen Nacht
Rannst Du zusammen
Vor meiner lebendigen Seele.
Und um Dich ordnet sich sanft die Welt,
Die Welt mit unendlicher Bilder
Ruhiger Wonne.
Ich sehe die Sonne,
Der Sterne klare Gestalten
In reinem Kreise Dein Haupt umwalten
Ich seh Deinen Fuß die Erde treten,
Ich sehe Dein Auge glänzen und beten,
Und es blickt mich an:
Mich – und ich bin,
Ich lebe.

susman

 Margarete Susman (14 oktober 1872  – 16 januari 1966)

 

De Poolse schrijver Stefan Żeromski werd geboren op 14 oktober 1864 in Strawczyn in de buurt van Kielce. Zie ook mijn blog van 14 oktober 2006.

Uit: Foreboding: Two Sketches (Vertaald door Else Benecke en Marie Busch)

‘In the darkest corner of the ward, in the bed marked number twenty-four, a farm labourer of about thirty years of age had been lying for several months.  A black wooden tablet, bearing the words ‘Caries tuberculosa’ hung at the head of the bed, and shook at each movement of the patient.  The poor fellow’s leg had had to be amputated above the knee, the result of a tubercular decay of the bone.  He was a peasant, a potato-grower, and his forefathers had grown potatoes before him.  He was now on his own, after having been in two situations; had been married for three years and had a baby son with a tuft of flaxen hair.  Then suddenly, from no cause that he could tell, his knee had pained him, and small ulcers had formed. He had afforded himself a carriage to the town, and there he had been handed over to the hospital at the expense of the parish.

He remembered distinctly how on that autumn afternoon he had driven in the splendid, cushioned carriage with his young wife, how they had both wept with fright and grief, and when they had finished crying had eaten hard-boiled eggs: but what had happened after that had all become blurred—indescribably misty.  Yet only partially so.

Of the days in the hospital with their routine and monotony, creating an incomprehensible break in his life, his memory retained nothing; but the unchanging grief, weighing like a slab of stone on a grave, was ever present in his soul with inexorable and brutal force during these many months.  He only half recalled the strange wonders that had been worked on him: bathing, feeding, probing into the wound, and later the operation.  He had been carried into a room full of gentlemen wearing aprons spotted with blood; he was conscious also of the mysterious, intrepid courage which, like a merciful hand, had supported him from that hour.”

 Żeromski

Stefan Żeromski (14 oktober 1864 – 20 november 1925)
Portret door Eligiusz Niewiadomski, 1900

 

De Nederlandse schrijver Daniël Rovers werd geboren in Zelhem op 14 oktober 1975. Rovers groeide op in het gehucht Velswijk, in de Gelderse Achterhoek. Hij studeerde Nederlands en wijsbegeerte in Nijmegen en woonde tot 2008 in Brussel, sindsdien in Amsterdam. In 2005 verscheen de essaybundel Bunzing. De roman Elf (2010) – volledige titel: Elf levens – beschrijft de levens van elf mensen die in Brussel wonen, levens die onderling verbonden blijken. In 2011 ook verscheen de roman Walter, die het leven beschrijft van een Noord-Brabantse seminarist die volwassen wordt in de jaren vijftig en zestig.

Uit: Walter

“In de zomer, als het eerste ochtendlicht onder de gordijnen de kamer in kierde, hoefde Walter niet gewekt te worden. Als je goed je best deed, dan kon je de zon horen schijnen, had Jos gezegd, maar als Walter luisterde, mond en ogen dicht, hoorde hij in de beuken voor het huis alleen het gekwetter van de koolmezen en een paar lijsters daartussen, en ja, een botvink met het begin van een melodie. En onder het fluiten van de vogels, gedempt door de dakpannen en de muren van de stal, het geloei van het vee. Onzalig doch niet ongelukkig, gemeenschap op vier poten, herkauwers.

’s Winters was het anders, dan hield de slaap je vast in de nacht: het donker bewoond door de vuurvliegjes die je ziet als je op een zomermiddag je ogen voor een moment ferm sluit. Op-stáán, op-stáán, op-stáán. Om zes uur klopte moeder driemaal op de houten achterwand van het bed, zodat het dreunde in het duister waarin hij verscholen lag. Een specht boorde in zijn schedel.

Twee ledikanten stonden in de kamer. Walter sliep naast zijn broer Jos, Johan en kleine Jan deelden het andere bed. In de vakanties moesten zij opschikken als grote Jan thuiskwam van de kostschool in Huijbergen, want zijn blozende, brede lijf had ruimte nodig. Jos reutelde van onder de opgebolde lakens; de open monden van kleine Jan en Johan verzamelden klompsokkenlucht. Walter richtte zich op. Wie wilde er nog in bed liggen nu het licht met putsen tegelijk over het erf werd uitgegoten?

Op de rieten stoel naast het bed lagen zijn broek, hemd, overhemd, vest en sokken; als het nodig was kon hij ze aantrekken op de tast. Zijn vingers herkenden de zachte kriebel van de wol, de koelte van het katoen. Met het vest in zijn rechterhand verliet hij de kamer en liep de brede, met tapijt overtrokken trap af, over de tegels van de hal, door de voorkamer tot aan de drempel van het washok. Daar sliepen nog zijn schoenen, nodig tegen de koelte die van beneden kwam. De Surinamerivier, het olifantengeweer, de glibberige vloer van de koeienstal. Droom heette het avontuur dat ’s nachts in slaap plaatsvond. Hij kletste een weinig water in zijn gezicht.”

rovers

Daniël Rovers (Zelhem, 14 oktober 1975)