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Lizette Woodworth Reese
(1856–1935)
Thomas A Kempis
Brother of mine, good monk with cowlëd head,
Walled from that world which thou hast long since fled,
And pacing thy green close beyond the sea,
I send my heart to thee.
Down gust-sweet walks, bordered by lavender,
While eastward, westward, the mad swallows whir,
All afternoon poring thy missal fair,
Serene thou pacest there.
Mixed with the words and fitting like a tune,
Thou hearest distantly the voice of June,—
The little, gossipping noises in the grass,
The bees that come and pass.
Fades the long day; the pool behind the hedge
Burns like a rose within the windy sedge;
The lilies ghostlier grow in the dim air;
The convent windows flare.
Yet still thou lingerest; from pastures steep,
Past the barred gate the shepherd drives his sheep;
A nightingale breaks forth, and for a space
Makes sweeter the sweet place.
Then the gray monks by hooded twos and threes
Move chapelward beneath the flaming trees;
Closing thy book, back by the alleys fair
Thou followest to prayer.
Born to these brawling days, this work-sick age,
Oft long I for thy simpler heritage;
A thought of thee is like a breath of bloom
Blown through a noisy room.
For thou art quick, not dead. I picture thee
Forever in that close beyond the sea;
And find, despite this weather’s headlong stir,
Peace and a comforter.
Lizette Woodworth Reese poetry
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive Q-R, CLASSIC POETRY, Thomas a Kempis
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal
(1829-1862)
He and She and Angels Three
Ruthless hands have torn her
From one that loved her well;
Angels have upborn her,
Christ her grief to tell.
She shall stand to listen,
She shall stand and sing,
Till three winged angels
Her lover’s soul shall bring.
He and she and the angels three
Before God’s face shall stand;
There they shall pray among themselves
And sing at His right hand.
Elizabeth Siddal poetry
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive S-T, Siddal, Lizzy
Op 31 maart 2015 overleed Adriaan Cornelis (Ad) den Besten op 92 jarige leeftijd. Ad den Besten (1923-2015) was dichter, vertaler, essayist, psalmberijmer en uitgever van poëzie.
Ad den Besten debuteerde op 17-jarige leeftijd in het tijdschrift Opwaartsche Wegen. Hij studeerde eerst theologie, later Duits. Tijdens de oorlogsjaren schreef Den Besten bijdragen voor het surrealistische maandblad De Schone Zakdoek.
Ad den Besten zou zeer gewaardeerd worden als medewerker aan het Liedboek voor de Kerken en de Psalmberijming van 1968.
Na een prijs te hebben ontvangen voor zijn medewerking aan het Liedboek voor de Kerken, ontving hij in 1989 de Martinus Nijhoff Prijs voor zijn vertaling van gedichten van Friedrich Hölderlin.
Als redacteur van de Poëziereeks De Windroos, o.a. een springplank voor de Beweging van Vijftig, had hij grote invloed op de vernieuwing van de Nederlandse poëzie.
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive A-B, Art & Literature News, In Memoriam
Emma Lazarus
(1849 – 1887)
Grief
There is a hungry longing in the soul,
A craving sense of emptiness and pain,
She may not satisfy nor yet control,
For all the teeming world looks void and vain.
No compensation in eternal spheres,
She knows the loneliness of all her years.
There is no comfort looking forth nor back,
The present gives the lie to all her past.
Will cruel time restore what she doth lack?
Why was no shadow of this doom forecast?
Ah! she hath played with many a keen-edged thing;
Naught is too small and soft to turn and sting.
In the unnatural glory of the hour,
Exalted over time, and death, and fate,
No earthly task appears beyond her power,
No possible endurance seemeth great.
She knows her misery and her majesty,
And recks not if she be to live or die.
Emma Lazarus poetry
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive K-L, Lazarus, Emma
Arthur Rimbaud
(1854-1891)
Bottom
La réalité étant trop épineuse pour mon grand caractère, — je me trouvai néanmoins chez ma dame, en gros oiseau gris bleu s’essorant vers les moulures du plafond et traînant l’aile dans les ombres de la soirée.
Je fus, au pied du baldaquin supportant ses bijoux adorés et ses chefs-d’œuvre physiques, un gros ours aux gencives violettes et au poil chenu de chagrin, les yeux aux cristaux et aux argents des consoles.
Tout se fit ombre et aquarium ardent. Au matin, — aube de juin batailleuse, — je courus aux champs, âne, claironnant et brandissant mon grief, jusqu’à ce que les Sabines de la banlieue vinrent se jeter à mon poitrail.
Arthur Rimbaud poetry
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive Q-R, Arthur Rimbaud, Rimbaud, Arthur, Rimbaud, Arthur
Stefan Zweig
(1881-1942)
Junge Glut
Tiefe Nacht. –
Aus sinneheißem Traum bin ich erwacht.
Ich träumte von schimmernder Glieder Pracht
Von Frauen, die mit liebesfrohen und verständnisstillen
Verschwiegnen Blicken Wunsch und Sucht erfüllen,
Ich träumte von glühenden brennenden Küssen
Von trunkener Geigen laut jubelndem Klang,
Von wilden, berauschenden Glutgenüssen
Von Mädchen, die ich als Sieger bezwang …
Und jede Sehnsucht fand im Traum ihr Ende
Doch nun bin ich erwacht!
Allein! . . . . . . Allein!! . . . . .
… Und sinnetrunken tappen meine Hände
In schweigende Dunkelheiten hinein
Hinein in die leere, nichtssagende Nacht! …
Stefan Zweig poetry
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive Y-Z, Stefan Zweig, Zweig, Stefan
Wachtend op lijn 3
Nu hoor ik voor de tweede keer in een minuut
een zelfde conversatie. Doodernstig staat een meisje
op dit ondergronds perron met een recordertje
te spelen. Daar drukt ze weer de opnameknop in,
luistert met haar stalen oor, spoelt rroetssjj terug
en draait met fonkelende ogen stemmen af die zij bezit:
dertig seconden terug in de tijd op dezelfde plek,
met geluiden van mensen die niet weten wat
ze moeten vinden. Ze oogt niet gek. Daar is de metro.
Zij hoeft niet mee. Ik kijk haar na, zie nieuwe
woorden zinloos op haar band verdwalen.
Waar ligt betekenis? In kogelgaten of de ruimte
daar tussen? Ik weet het niet, en zie verder leven,
verder.
Bert Bevers
(verschenen in Antwerpen – De stad in gedichten, Uitgeverij 521, Amsterdam, 2003)
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive A-B, Bevers, Bert
Erik Satie
(1866 – 1925)
La Pieuvre
La pieuvre est dans sa caverne.
Elle s’amuse avec un crabe.
Elle le poursuit.
Elle l’a avalé de travers.
Hagarde, elle se marche sur les pieds.
Elle boit un verre d’eau salée pour se remettre.
Cette boisson lui fait grand bien et lui change les idées.
17 mars 1914
Erik Satie La Pieuvre
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive S-T, Erik Satie, MUSIC, Satie, Erik
Hugo Ball
(1886–1927)
Ich liebte nicht die Totenkopfhusaren
Und nicht die Mörser mit den Mädchennamen
Und als am End die großen Tage kamen,
Da bin ich unauffällig weggefahren.
Gott sei’s geklagt und ihnen, meine Damen:
Gleich Absalom blieb ich an langen Haaren,
Dieweil sie schluchzten über Totenbahren
Im Wehbaum hängen aller ihrer Dramen.
Sie werden auch in diesen Versen finden
Manch Marterspiel und stürzend Abenteuer.
Man stirbt nicht nur durch Minen und durch Flinten.
Man wird nicht von Granaten nur zerrissen.
In meine Nächte drangen Ungeheuer,
Die mich die Hölle wohl empfinden ließen.
Hugo Ball poetry
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive A-B, Ball, Hugo, Dada
Mary Darby Robinson
(1757?-1800)
Beauty
Beauty, the attribute of Heaven!
In various forms to mortals given,
With magic skill enslaves mankind,
As sportive fancy sways the mind.
Search the wide world, go where you will,
VARIETY pursues you still;
Capricious Nature knows no bound,
Her unexhausted gifts are found
In ev’ry clime, in ev’ry face,
Each has its own peculiar grace.
To GALLIA’s frolic scenes repair,
There reigns the tyny DEBONAIRE;
The mincing stepthe slender waist,
The lip with bright vermilion grac’d:
The short pert nosethe pearly teeth,
With the small dimpled chin beneath,
The social converse, gay and free,
The smart BON-MOT and REPARTEE.
ITALIA boasts the melting fair,
The pointed step, the haughty air,
Th’ empassion’d tone, the languid eye,
The song of thrilling harmony;
Insidious LOVE conceal’d in smiles
That charmsand as it charms beguiles.
View GRECIAN MAIDS, whose finish’d forms
The wond’ring sculptor’s fancy warms!
There let thy ravish’d eye behold
The softest gems of Nature’s mould;
Each charm, that REYNOLDS learnt to trace,
From SHERIDAN’s bewitching face.
Imperious TURKEY’s pride is seen
In Beauty’s rich luxuriant mien;
The dark and sparkling orbs that glow
Beneath a polish’d front of snow:
The auburn curl that zephyr blows
About the cheek of brightest rose:
The shorten’d zone, the swelling breast,
With costly gems profusely drest;
Reclin’d in softly-waving bow’rs,
On painted beds of fragrant flow’rs;
Where od’rous canopies dispense
ARABIA’s spices to the sense;
Where listless indolence and ease,
Proclaim the sov’reign wish, to please.
‘Tis thus, capricious FANCY shows
How far her frolic empire goes !
On ASIA’s sands, on ALPINE snow,
We trace her steps where’er we go;
The BRITISH Maid with timid grace;
The tawny INDIAN ‘s varnish’d face;
The jetty AFRICAN; the fair
Nurs’d by EUROPA’s softer air;
With various charms delight the mind,
For FANCY governs ALL MANKIND.
Mary Darby Robinson poetry
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive Q-R, CLASSIC POETRY
Op donderdag 26 maart is de Zweedse dichter Tomas Tranströmer overleden. Hij was 83 jaar oud. In 2011 won Tranströmer de Nobelprijs voor de Literatuur.
Tomas Tranströmer, debuteerde in 1954 met de bundel 17 gedichten. Hij wordt gezien als de belangrijkste hedendaagse dichter van Zweden. Zijn werk werd in meer dan vijftig talen vertaald. Bernlef vertaalde veel van zijn gedichten in het Nederlands.
Photo: Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer at Writers’ and Literary Translators’ International Conference (Stockholm, June 30, 2008)
Photo: Andrei Romanenko
Zijn laatste bundel: Gedichten en Proza 1954-2004 verscheen in 2011. Tranströmer’s werken werden in Nederland uitgegeven door De Bezige Bij.
In Memoriam Tomas Gösta Tranströmer (Stockholm, 15 april 1931 – aldaar, 26 maart 2015)
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive S-T, Art & Literature News, In Memoriam
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1837-1909)
The Garden of Proserpine
Here, where the world is quiet;
Here, where all trouble seems
Dead winds’ and spent waves’ riot
In doubtful dreams of dreams;
I watch the green field growing
For reaping folk and sowing,
For harvest-time and mowing,
A sleepy world of streams.
I am tired of tears and laughter,
And men that laugh and weep,
Of what may came hereafter
For men that sow to reap:
I am weary of days and hours,
Blown buds of barren flowers,
Desires and dreams and powers
And everything but sleep.
Here life has death for neighbour,
And far from eye or ear
Wan waves and wet winds labour,
Weak ships and spirits steer;
They drive adrift, and whither
They wot not who make thither;
But no such winds blow hither,
And no such things grow here.
No growth of moor or coppice,
No heather-flower or vine
But bloomless buds of poppies,
Green grapes of Proserpine.
Pale beds of blowing rushes
Where no leaf blooms or blushes
Save this whereout she crushes
For dead men deadly wine.
Pale, without name or number,
In fruitless fields of corn,
They bow themselves and slumber
All night till light is born;
And like a soul belated,
In hell and heaven unmated,
By cloud and mist abated
Comes out of darkness, morn.
Though one were strong as seven,
He too with death shall dwell,
Nor wake with wings in heaven,
Nor weep for pains in hell;
Though one were fair as roses,
His beauty clouds and closes;
And well though love reposes,
In the end, it is not well.
Pale, beyond porch and portal,
Crowned with calm leaves, she stands
Who gathers all things mortal
With cold immortal hands;
Her languid lips are sweeter
Than love’s who fears to greet her
To men that mix and meet her
From many times and lands.
She waits for each and other,
She waits for all men born;
Forgets the earth her mother,
The life of fruits and corn;
And spring and seed and swallow
Take wing for her and follow
Where summer song rings hollow
And flowers are put to scorn.
There go the loves that wither,
The old loves with wearier wings;
And all dead years draw thither,
And all disastrous things;
Dead dreams of days forsaken,
Blind buds that snows have shaken,
Wild leaves that winds have taken,
Red strays of ruined springs.
We are not sure of sorrow,
And joy was never sure;
Today will die tomorrow;
Time stoops to no man’s lure;
And love, grown faint and fretful,
With lips but half regretful
Sighs, and with eyes forgetful
Weeps that no loves endure.
From too much love of living,
From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be
That no man lives for ever;
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea.
Then star nor sun shall waken,
Nor any change of light;
Nor sound of waters shaken,
Nor any sound or sight;
Nor wintry nor vernal,
Nor days, nor things diurnal;
Only the sleep eternal
In an eternal night.
Algernon Charles Swinburne poetry
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive S-T, Swinburne, Algernon Charles
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