Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Dirk van Bastelaere

FROM THE TRANSIENT

Heart, I can consider you in generous terms

of imagery to prove your transferable

nature, your utility, Generator,
for the reclamation of unreclaimed land;
reservoir for the felt

or what in touch with our mortality
emits signals in biochemistry.

As a cistern for the emotions,
that which moves us, I could incorporate
you in the rhetoric
of the preceding, but, as rhetoric,
the preceding has already done so
and as such incorporated me, so that I
address myself from the transient in you
that reinvents me in what you do to me

Vanuit het voorbije

Vanuit het voorbije

Hart, ik kan je bedenken

met beeldspraak om je overdrachtelijkheid

te bewijzen, je bruikbaarheid, generator,
voor de ontginning van onontgonnen terrein;
reservoir voor het gevoelde

of wat in voeling met onze sterfelijkheid
signalen afgeeft in de biochemie.

Stortbak voor de emoties,
het ons bewegende, kon ik je inlijven
in de retoriek
van het voorafgaande, maar dat
heeft, als retoriek, het voorafgaande al gedaan
en als dusdanig mij ingelijfd, zodat ik
mij toespreek vanuit het voorbije in jou
dat mij heruitvindt in wat je mij aandoet
Close

FROM THE TRANSIENT

Heart, I can consider you in generous terms

of imagery to prove your transferable

nature, your utility, Generator,
for the reclamation of unreclaimed land;
reservoir for the felt

or what in touch with our mortality
emits signals in biochemistry.

As a cistern for the emotions,
that which moves us, I could incorporate
you in the rhetoric
of the preceding, but, as rhetoric,
the preceding has already done so
and as such incorporated me, so that I
address myself from the transient in you
that reinvents me in what you do to me

FROM THE TRANSIENT

Heart, I can consider you in generous terms

of imagery to prove your transferable

nature, your utility, Generator,
for the reclamation of unreclaimed land;
reservoir for the felt

or what in touch with our mortality
emits signals in biochemistry.

As a cistern for the emotions,
that which moves us, I could incorporate
you in the rhetoric
of the preceding, but, as rhetoric,
the preceding has already done so
and as such incorporated me, so that I
address myself from the transient in you
that reinvents me in what you do to me
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