Slauerhoff poem

[Moker MgtowParticipant 141]

http://4umi.com/slauerhoff/liefde

I,ve been a big fan of J.J. Slauerhoffs poetry since high school. Somehow this dude spoke to my teenage soul. I have been re-reading his work recently and this poem stuck out. Now, it’s in Dutch and google translate does a very, very poor job in translating poems, so I tried to translate it myself. And yeah, I’m a bit drunk. Hence the poetry….

Anyway:

J.J. Slauerhoff

Love

Love is nothing but going on daily,
Through barren deserts.
To get up tired after the night,
Out of dark valleys.

Love is not an outspoken understanding,
It’s not a rise to the light,
And it’s not about being infinite and also
It’s not about facing one’s self

Because life delivers no fixed happiness, but
A disastrous wandering in the labyrinth
The feelings: he who claims to know the way is haughty,
As an inexperienced child.
     
Love is just to tolerate each other sadly
As a woman and a man:
Two enemies who still support each other
Now and then.

And because God, in spite of their dispair and their questions
Gives no solace, no answers,
Sometimes they dare to fly their way into infinity
Which embraces

[Moker MgtowParticipant 141]

1947

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