Maatstaf. Jaargang 5

[p. 864]

Henriette Schuurbeque Boeye
Two Poems

Two Great Lovers

Those wordless and dumb seers, from young child to
Cats in old streets of Paris, and, on hills
Of one-time Thracia goat and donkey still
May halt, or swerve aside, or suddenly turn
Back in their tracks as they see footmarks burn
Where to their trysts those lovers hastened who,
Wise with a wisdom which to lesser minds
Seems foolishness, knew of no compromise,
No ways less stern or reckless than left these
Inviolate symbols: Nun's robe over flame
Unquenched, that was the heart of Heloïse,
And the head of that great Singer, on the seas,
Through long-dead lips still calling the one name...

My Grief and the World

Though scarcely fathomed yet, God knows, I'd seen
It mirrored in a hundred pitying eyes,
And, seeing, marveled at a world so keen
To cry another's sorrow to the skies.

Till all its gifts I would have cast aside
For a night unending by the pitiless sea,
Where no man ever stemmed the outgoing tide,
Or saw one star dimmed through his misery.