Tsjip. Jaargang 6

[p. 1]

[Nummer 3]

Tsjip

Last movements

In Old Master music in sonata form,
by Mozart, by Schubert, you always find,
after the sadness and the emotional storm
that moves or maddens the listening mind,
strumming the nerves like the strings they play
that four, five or six will make the mood gay

This is a convention, we know, of course,
and a wistfulness in the rumti-ti-tum
might be detected; the sorrow's force
gives way to the logical musical sum,
as vigorously, brightly, the players bend
to a dance where unhappiness comes to an end.

But perhaps there's thanksgiving concealed there too
for a life that also contained some joy,
a kind of reminder for me and you
that nothing's pure, and without alloy
nothing. The dark swallows up despair
as well as hope - says that rustic air.

Gavin Ewart uit: The collected Ewart 1933-1980. London 1980