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Rape joke

Floored.’Rape Joke’ by Lockwood. Poem doing the rounds now.

“[…] The rape joke is that the next day he gave you Pet Sounds. No really. Pet Sounds. He said he was sorry and then he gave you Pet Sounds. Come on, that’s a little bit funny.

Admit it.”

“[…] The rape joke is that for the next five years all you did was write, and never about yourself, about anything else, about apples on the tree, about islands, dead poets and the worms that aerated them, and there was no warm body in what you wrote, it was elsewhere. […]”

Do not stand at my grave and weep. Mary Elizabeth Frye.

Old poem about the soul by Mary Elizabeth Frye. Angela.

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.

Suicide off Egg Rock, Sylvia Plath.

Suicide off Egg Rock, Sylvia Plath.

Behind him the hotdogs split and drizzled 
On the public grills, and the ochreous salt flats, 
Gas tanks, factory stacks- that landscape 
Of imperfections his bowels were part of- 
Rippled and pulsed in the glassy updraught. 
Sun struck the water like a damnation. 
No pit of shadow to crawl into, 
And his blood beating the old tattoo 
I am, I am, I am. Children 
Were squealing where combers broke and the spindrift 
Raveled wind-ripped from the crest of the wave. 
A mongrel working his legs to a gallop 
Hustled a gull flock to flap off the sandspit. 

He smoldered, as if stone-deaf, blindfold, 
His body beached with the sea’s garbage, 
A machine to breathe and beat forever. 
Flies filing in through a dead skate’s eyehole 
Buzzed and assailed the vaulted brainchamber. 
The words in his book wormed off the pages. 
Everything glittered like blank paper. 

Everything shrank in the sun’s corrosive 
Ray but Egg Rock on the blue wastage. 
He heard when he walked into the water 
The forgetful surf creaming on those ledges.

Bits of poetry. Nothing diverse as yet. Sorry.

  • — A Song of Wandering Aengus

    I went out to the hazel wood,

    Because a fire was in my head,

    And cut and peeled a hazel wand,

    And hooked a berry to a thread;

    And when white moths were on the wing,

    And moth-like stars were flickering out,

    I dropped the berry in a stream

    And caught a little silver trout.

    W.B. Yeats

     

    –The thought fox.

    […] Cold, delicately as the dark snow

    A fox’s nose touches twig, leaf. […]

    Ted Hughes

     

    –Silver

    Slowly, silently, now the moon

    Walks the night in her silver shoon;

    This way, and that, she peers, and sees

    Silver fruit upon silver trees;

     

    […] Couched in his kennel, like a log,

    With paws of silver sleeps the dog;

    […] A harvest mouse goes scampering by,

    With silver claws, and silver eye;

    And moveless fish in the water gleam,

    By silver reeds in a silver stream.

    Walter de la Mare

     

    –The Owl and the Pussy-cat

    […] The Owl looked up to the stars above,

    And sang to a small guitar,

    ‘O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,

    What a beautiful Pussy you are, You are, You are!

    What a beautiful Pussy you are!’ […]

    ‘Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling

    Your ring?’ Said the Piggy, ‘I will.’

    So they took it away, and were married next day

    By the Turkey who lives on the hill.

    They dined on mince, and slices of quince,

    Which they ate with a runcible spoon;

    And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

    They danced by the light of the moon,

    The moon, The moon,

    They danced by the light of the moon

    Edward Lear

     

    –Macavity The Mystery Cat

    Macavity’s a Mystery Cat: he’s called the Hidden Paw– […]

    He’s outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.)

    And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard’s.

    And when the larder’s looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,

    Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke’s been stifled,

    Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair–

    Ay, there’s the wonder of the thing! Macavity’s not there!

     

    And when the Foreign Office finds a Treaty’s gone astray,

    Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way,

    There may be a scap of paper in the hall or on the stair–

    But it’s useless of investigate–Macavity’s not there!

    And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say:

    “It must have been Macavity!”–but he’s a mile away.

    You’ll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs,

    Or engaged in doing complicated long division sums.

    T S Eliot

Winter at sea: Een eerlijk zeemansgraf by Jan Jacob Slauerhoff

A loose translation. There simply is no good translation that I can write. Most of the beautiful old Dutch is disappeared, even modern Dutch would not compare. I think if you yourself sail, you can maybe hear it in the English.

No deep meaning, only lovely description by the ship’s doctor…

The sea’s edge shifts cruel, the waves tumble wild,
From mild and green, abruptly broken, leaden and gray;
One night, there is the wind that shivers through open sky,
Next, akin to sudden death, the cold.

About rock islands without tree or grass,
Resting abandoned in time-worn space,
Blossoms only the fierce and unruly growth
Of rapidly rising, quickly wilting foam.

Aboard the ship on which no soothing fires burn,
The cold nestles itself in, for a long journey;
Against walls by night creaks awakened,
The floating ice grinds and shatters itself.

Winter op zee
De kim wordt wreed, de golven tuimlen wild,
Van mild en groen, spoorslags hardgrijs en grauw;
Eén nacht waarin de wind door ‘t luchtruim rilt,
Dan, als een plotselinge dood, de kou.

Om rotseilanden zonder boom en gras,
Liggend verlaten in het oeroud ruim,
Bloeit slechts ‘t onstuimig en verward gewas
Van ‘t snel opschietend, snel verwelkend schuim.

Op ‘t schip waarin geen vuren troostend branden,
Nestelt de kou zich voor een lange reis;
Tegen de ‘s nachts wakkergekraakte wanden
Kruit en verbrijzelt zich het drijvend ijs.

Een eerlijk zeemansgraf (1941)

Annie M.G. Schmidt “Suja Suja Prikkeltje”

I loosely translated a Dutch baby’s sleeping song by the poet Annie M.G. Schmidt. ‘suja’ comes from ‘soothe’.

Suja suja prickly-ball, outside the moon bathes all in silver white,

You are a little porcupine, but don’t be sad: you are alright,

You are an itty-bitty porcupine, ignore the stereotypes,

The lions have their manes and tigers have their stripes

We have our auntie squirrel with a reddish woollen tail,

And you, you’re more than awesome with all those little quills!

Sleep, my itty-bitty prickle-ball, so you will grow big and fat,

So you’ll turn into a porcupine ‘xactly like mom and dad.

The stately elephant has a trunk, the bears, oooh, they have sharp claws,

The parrot has bright feathers, green ones, and think of royal blue macaws!

Our uncle giraffe, well, he has the longest neck; brown spots on golden white,

And you, you have all those prickly quills: what, not too shabby, right!?

Suja suja prickle-dum-dee, the moon is lit and the shadows are long.

You’re mine, the most beautiful porcupine, and also very strong!

The cats have whiskers and purring weave your dreams,

Sweet cows have horns and fish they dance in streams,

Our cousin the otter has a jacket, velvet, soft-brown and gray,

and you, you have all those tickly quills: those will come in handy one day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-x5QH-jCi4

Image

Suja suja Prikkeltje, daar buiten schijnt de maan,

je bent een stekelvarkentje, maar trek het je niet aan,

je bent een stekelvarkentje, dat heb je al begrepen,

De leeuwen hebben manen en de tijgers hebben strepen

en onze tante eekhoorn heeft een roje wollen staart,

maar jij hebt allemaal stekeltjes en dát is zoveel waard.

Slaap, mijn kleine Prikkeltje, dan wordt je groot en dik,

dan wordt je net zo’n stekelvarken als je pa en ik.

Het olifantje heeft een slurf, de beren hebben klauwen,

de papegaai heeft veren, van die groene, van die blauwe,

en onze oom giraffe heeft een héle lange nek,

maar jij hebt allemaal stekeltjes en dat is ook niet gek,

Suja suja Prikkeltje, het is al vreselijk laat,

Je bent het mooiste stekelvarken, dat er maar bestaat,

de poezen hebben snorren en daar kunnen ze door spinnen,

de koeien hebben horens en de vissen hebben vinnen,

en onze neef, de otter, heeft een bruinfluwelen jas,

maar jij hebt allemaal stekeltjes, die komen nog te pas.