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Poem

Dambudzo Marechera

To Bettina, with Angry Tenderness

Great Zimbabwe, Matopos: they to me return
You feverish with visions of mortality:
I dare not hold your fragility tightly
But through anger’s gentle kiss remould you
With my intimacy to your former state.
Brief acquaintance, dredged by shared experience,
Is now a harbour for the biggest tankers
Or the human spirit: Mainz, Harare. Maputo,
Cologne, Lusaka: the loneliest breeze
Is part of the astounding cyclone.
Forget ever the pain that teases your eternal sight:
Finite impurities will never dim your tormented inscape!

TO BETTINA, WITH ANGRY TENDERNESS

Close

To Bettina, with Angry Tenderness

Great Zimbabwe, Matopos: they to me return
You feverish with visions of mortality:
I dare not hold your fragility tightly
But through anger’s gentle kiss remould you
With my intimacy to your former state.
Brief acquaintance, dredged by shared experience,
Is now a harbour for the biggest tankers
Or the human spirit: Mainz, Harare. Maputo,
Cologne, Lusaka: the loneliest breeze
Is part of the astounding cyclone.
Forget ever the pain that teases your eternal sight:
Finite impurities will never dim your tormented inscape!

To Bettina, with Angry Tenderness

Great Zimbabwe, Matopos: they to me return
You feverish with visions of mortality:
I dare not hold your fragility tightly
But through anger’s gentle kiss remould you
With my intimacy to your former state.
Brief acquaintance, dredged by shared experience,
Is now a harbour for the biggest tankers
Or the human spirit: Mainz, Harare. Maputo,
Cologne, Lusaka: the loneliest breeze
Is part of the astounding cyclone.
Forget ever the pain that teases your eternal sight:
Finite impurities will never dim your tormented inscape!
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
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