Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Eva Gerlach

THE STORM AND TEMPEST

Woke up at a gale digging
into the roof. Charging, bashing its unseeing
face, clawing nails under
chinks, us beneath: heady
with sleep, too leaden to be swept off, be
whisked away together. Heard a rising
shriek as if the house might be sucked bone-dry,
windows thrown open, letters
blown chirping into the night. All the wrenchable slipped
from our lives, one two all gone! – look at us
bare as the ground. Twixt least and nothing the roof was still
briefly a skin. It began

De drijvende wind

De drijvende wind

Wakker omdat een storm
groef in het dak. Aan kwam jagen, zijn blinde gezicht
kneusde, nagels stak onder
kieren waaronder wij: dik
van slaap, te zwaar om meegenomen, weg
gewaaid te worden samen. Hoorden een opwaarts
gieren of het huis werd leeggezogen,
ramen schoten open, brieven stoven
sjirpend de nacht in. Al het verwrikbare gleed
van onze levens, een twee verlies! – kijk ons,
kaal als de grond. Tussen minstens en niets was het dak nog
even een vlies. Het begon
Close

THE STORM AND TEMPEST

Woke up at a gale digging
into the roof. Charging, bashing its unseeing
face, clawing nails under
chinks, us beneath: heady
with sleep, too leaden to be swept off, be
whisked away together. Heard a rising
shriek as if the house might be sucked bone-dry,
windows thrown open, letters
blown chirping into the night. All the wrenchable slipped
from our lives, one two all gone! – look at us
bare as the ground. Twixt least and nothing the roof was still
briefly a skin. It began

THE STORM AND TEMPEST

Woke up at a gale digging
into the roof. Charging, bashing its unseeing
face, clawing nails under
chinks, us beneath: heady
with sleep, too leaden to be swept off, be
whisked away together. Heard a rising
shriek as if the house might be sucked bone-dry,
windows thrown open, letters
blown chirping into the night. All the wrenchable slipped
from our lives, one two all gone! – look at us
bare as the ground. Twixt least and nothing the roof was still
briefly a skin. It began
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Ludo Pieters Gastschrijver Fonds
Lira fonds
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