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Poem

Vikram Seth

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ONOPGEËIST

Naar bed gaan met een vreemde is het best.
Er is geen raadsel en er is geen test. –

Samen naar bed gaan, zonder dwang dit nader
Te plaatsen in ons referentiekader.

Elkaar strelen, zonder vrees voor dag
Elkaar begrijpen, zoals vreemd vermag.

Elkaars vreemde hart te voelen slaan
Niet liever blijven en niet liever gaan.

In onbekende armen rustend weten
Dat dit dus alles is; dit ’t moet heten.

UNCLAIMED

To make love with a stranger is the best.
There is no riddle and there is no test. –

To lie and love, not aching to make sense
Of this night in the mesh of reference.

To touch, unclaimed by fear of imminent day,
And understand, as only strangers may.

To feel the beat of foreign heart to heart
Preferring neither to prolong nor part.

To rest within the unknown arms and know
That this is all there is; that this is so.
Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth

(India, 1952)

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UNCLAIMED

To make love with a stranger is the best.
There is no riddle and there is no test. –

To lie and love, not aching to make sense
Of this night in the mesh of reference.

To touch, unclaimed by fear of imminent day,
And understand, as only strangers may.

To feel the beat of foreign heart to heart
Preferring neither to prolong nor part.

To rest within the unknown arms and know
That this is all there is; that this is so.

UNCLAIMED

Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Ludo Pieters Gastschrijver Fonds
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