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Clouds at the eye of the Moor
"Then came the time that I didn't look up to the sky,
Even though the heavens were full of clouds,
I didn't reach to the flight of the strange thing
That with my shadow rubbed along side my life..."



from The Clouds, a poem by 
Martinus Nijhoff

This week, an image of a rising cumulus
in a midsummer sky, reflected in the surface
of a small tarn at the center of an alpine moor.




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The guest poem for this week is a new English translation from the work of the Dutch
language poet,
Martinus Nijhoff:




De Wolken

Ik droeg nog kleine kleeren, en ik lag
Lang-uit met moeder in de warme hei,
De wolken schoven boven ons voorbij
En moeder vroeg wat 'k in de wolken zag.

En ik riep: Scandinavia, en: eenden,
Daar gaat een dame, schapen met een herder—
De wond'ren werden woord en dreven verder,
Maar 'k zag dat moeder met een glimlach weende...

Toen kwam de tijd dat 'k niet naar boven keek,
Ofschoon de hemel vol van wolken hing,
Ik greep niet naar de vlucht van 't vreemde ding
Dat met zijn schaduw langs mijn leven streek.

—Nu ligt mijn jongen naast mij in de heide
En wijst me wat hij in de wolken ziet,
Nu schrei ik zelf, en zie in het verschiet
De verre wolken waarom moeder schreide—

    Marinus Nijhoff
(1894-1953)
The Clouds

I still wore a little child's clothes, and I lay
Stretched out with my mother in the warm heather,
The clouds floated by above us
And my mother asked me what I saw in them.

I called out: Scandinavia, and: ducks,
There goes a lady, sheep with a herder—
The wonders became words and pushed further,
But I saw how my mother's smile filled with tears...

Then came the time that I didn't look up to the sky,
Even though the heavens were full of clouds,
I didn't reach to the flight of the strange thing
That with my shadow rubbed along side my life.

—Now my little boy lies aside me in the heather
And shows me what he sees in the clouds,
Now I cry myself, and see in that which is to come
The distant clouds which caused my mother to cry—

      (tr. Cliff Crego)




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Calendar
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See
also:

new
"Straight roads,
Slow rivers,
Deep clay."
A collection of contemporary Dutch poetry
in English translation, with commentary
and photographs
by Cliff Crego


| See also a selection of recent Picture/Poem "Rilke in translation" features at the Rilke Archive.

See also another website
by Cliff Crego:
The Poetry of
Rainer Maria Rilke
A presentation of 80 of the
best poems of Rilke in
both German and
new English translations
:
biography, links, posters


| # listen to other recordings in English and German of eight poems from
The Book of Images
at The Rilke Download Page (# Includes instructions)
|
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Photographs and Texts © 2000 - 2011 Cliff Crego
(created
IV.23.2000) Comments to crego@picture-poems.com