HARVEY, P.J.



I Inside The Old I Dying


The beech buds wait

The aish buds wait

The frogs and twoads in lagwood holes

Hedgehogs in their leafy ditch

All waiting for His kingdom


The eth waits

The dead brakes

That host the holly's bloody beads

They are His crown of thorns

He will rise again


Oh Wyman, Oh Wyman

Unray I

Unray I for en


Slip from my childhood skin

I zing, I'm zinging through the forest

I hover in the holway

And laugh into the leaves


Oh Wyman, Oh Wyman

Unray I

Unray I for en


I laugh in the leaves

And merge to meesh

Just a charm in the woak

With the chalky children

Of evermore


The chalky children of evermore



Ik in het oude stervende ik


De beukenknoppen wachten.

De knoppen van de es wachten.

De kikkers en padden in boomholen

en egels in hun lommerrijke greppel,

allemaal wachtend op Zijn koninkrijk.


De aarde wacht.

Het dode struikgewas

dat de bloedige hulstbessen herbergt,

zij zijn Zijn doornenkroon

en hij zal verrijzen.


O Wyman, o Wyman

Ik ontkleed me,

ontkleed me voor hem.


Ik glijd uit de huid van mijn jeugd;

ik zing, ik zing door het bos,

ik zweef in de holle weg

en lach naar de bladeren.


O Wyman, o Wyman

Ik ontkleed me,

ontkleed me voor hem.


Ik lach tussen de bladeren

en versmelt tot mos,

gewoon een totem in de eik

met de spokenkinderen

van immermeer.


De spokenkinderen van immermeer.


Vertaling Z. DE MEESTER




Down By The Water

I lost my heart
Under the bridge
To that little girl
So much to me
And now I'm old
And now I holler
She'll never know
Just what I found

That blue eyed girl
She said "no more"
That blue eyed girl
Became blue eyed whore
Down by the water
I took her hand
Just like my daughter
Won't see her again

Oh help me Jesus
Come through this storm
I had to lose her
To do her harm
I heard her holler
I heard her moan
My lovely daughter
I took her home

Little fish. big fish. Swimming in the water.
Come back here, man. gimme my daughter

....


Let England shake

The west's asleep, let England shake
Weighted down with silent dead
I fear our blood won't rise again
Won't rise again

England's dancing days are done
Another day, Bobby, for you to come
Home and tell me indifference
Is won, won, won

Smile, smile Bobby, with your lovely mouth
Pack up your troubles, let's head out
To the fountain of death and splash about
Swim back and forth, back, back and laugh out loud

Until the day is ending
And the birds are silent in the branches
And the insects are courting in the bushes
And by the shores heavy stones are falling



Orlam


Hook Farm bent my infancy

So I fled through the back door

for the company of Gore Woods,

its sooneres, eltroot and soft meesh.

There I wept intimacies

into crypts of bracken and fern


Twoad's meat, Jew’s ears

and goocoo spettle sustained

me through Underwhelem*

a west country misty outstep

with three hoar-stones

The Golden Fleece and the Red Post

.....

*Voul village in a hag-ridden hollow

All ways to it winding, all roads to it narrow.