Dolce far niente
Midsummer
A power is on the earth and in the air,
From which the vital spirit shrinks afraid,
And shelters him in nooks of deepest shade,
From the hot steam and from the fiery glare.
Look forth upon the earth—her thousand plants
Are smitten; even the dark sun-loving maize
Faints in the field beneath the torrid blaze;
The herd beside the shaded fountain pants;
For life is driven from all the landscape brown;
The bird hath sought his tree, the snake his den,
The trout floats dead in the hot stream, and men
Drop by the sunstroke in the populous town:
As if the Day of Fire had dawned, and sent
Its deadly breath into the firmament.
De Amerikaanse dichteres en schrijfster Lucille Clifton werd geboren in New York op 27 juni 1936. Zie ook alle tags voor Lucille Clifton op dit blog.
Admonitions
boys
i don’t promise you nothing
but this
what you pawn
i will redeem
what you steal
i will conceal
my private silence to
your public guilt
is all i got
girls
first time a white man
opens his fly
like a good thing
we’ll just laugh
laugh real loud my
black women
children
when they ask you
why is your mama so funny
say
she is a poet
she don’t have no sense
Island Mary
after the all been done and i
one old creature carried on
another creature’s back, i wonder
could i have fought these thing?
surrounded by no son of mine save
old men calling Mother like in the tale
the astrologer tell, i wonder
could i have walk away when voices
singing in my sleep? i one old woman.
always i seem to worrying now for
another young girl asleep
in the plain evening.
what song around her ear?
what star still choosing?
john
somebody coming in blackness
like a star
and the world be a great bush
on his head
and his eyes be fire
in the city
and his mouth be true as time
he be calling the people brother
even in the prison
even in the jail
i’m just only a baptist preacher
somebody bigger than me coming
in blackness like a star
klimmen
een vrouw gaat mij voor langs het lange touw.
haar bungelende vlechten in de kleur van regen.
misschien had ik vlechten moeten hebben.
misschien had ik het lichaam moeten houden waarmee ik begon,
slank en mogelijk als het bot van een jongen.
misschien had ik minder moeten willen.
misschien had ik de kom in mij moeten negeren
die hunkerde om gevuld te worden.
misschien had ik minder moeten willen.
de vrouw passeert de kerf in het touw
gemarkeerd zestig. Ik klim ernaartoe, worstelend,
hand over hongerige hand
Vertaald door Frans Roumen
Zie voor nog meer schrijvers van de 27e juni ook mijn blog van 27 juni 2020 en eveneens mijn blog van 27 juni 2019 en ook mijn blog van 27 juni 2016 en eveneens mijn blog van 27 juni 2015 deel 2.