Under the Cities – Under de steden

Under the Cities

Last night a heavy snowfall whitewashed all the clocks.
Docks and factories, squares and ships
were all asleep.
Where I wandered, lost half in thought,
I saw, in blue streetlight,
a father, a brother
and their harried shades,
black as the horse that cantered once
through songs and bodies.
The ponds and waterways were frozen over,
slabs beneath the wintry sky.
By the Blockhouse Gate I stood and stared.

To the sonorous sound of a tenor sax,
a dog barked out its cold disquiet.
Further along a ship slipped from the quay,
breaking a path
through the creaking ice,
floating off under the cities of night.
I saw the shades of a father, a brother,
a vanishing into a universe that doesn’t signify.
Of all that’s gone and disappeared, I
am the abandoned city, with homes and shops
and a courthouse whose walls are blank.
By the Blockhouse Gate I stood and stared.

Translation: David Colmer

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Under de steden

Fannacht ferve in snijen alle klokken wyt.
Kaaien en fabriken, pleinen en skippen,
alles lei te sliepen.
Dêr’t ik omdangele, heal yn mysels ferrûn,
seach ik yn blau lantearneljocht
in heit, in broer en
it jachtsjen fan har skaden,
swart as de hynsters dy’t har ienris
troch liet en lichem draafden.
Ticht leine alle fivers en grêften
ûnder de winterhimel, in sark.
Njonken de Blokhúspoart stie ik as in muorre.

By de sonoare klanken fan in lege saks
blafte in hûn in kâlde ûnrêst.
Fierderop kaam in skip fan syn kaaien los,
briek mei geweld
troch it kreakjende iis,
fersweevjend ûnder nacht syn steden.
Ik seach de skaden fan in heit, in broer,
in ferdwinen yn in hielal, sûnder tekens.
Fan alle wei en wegen bin ik
de ferlitten stêd, mei wenten en winkels en
in gerjochtsgebou, sûnder finsters.
Njonken de Blokhúspoart stie ik as in muorre.