West-Vlaanderen. Jaargang 6

[p. 273]

Poetisch bericht

Vier gedichten van Guido Gezelle vertaald door Christine D'Haen

A tom-tit nest has broken out,
where, (in the willow-trunk

't is shrunk),

did fifteen egglets crowd;
they sit and stir there in the tree.
twig-up, twig-down, twig-out, twig-in, twig-round,

a lot to see!

I laugh so, laugh so, laugh until I bound!

The tom-tit mother comes and true,
amid the tepid noon
all blue
and green with yellow hue,
it brings them this and that for prey,
twig-round, twig-on, twig-down, twig-out, twig-in,

how rage they!

And creep all, quick, the tom-tit nest within.

The tom-tit father sits - the veil
of leaves hides it from harms -

and charms

with any tom-tit tale!
There fly they all at once and then,
twig-round, twig-on, twig-down, twig-in, twig-out,

Amen!

the tom-tit nest is now all void and out.

*

You prayed upon a top alone,
and- Jesus, I discover none
where I may climb so highly
and you alone be finding:
the world will ever after me
where I may flee

or be

or where my eyes may see;
and poor as I am there is none,

not one,

who need and never may complain;
who hunger and may not obtain;
who pain and may not speak of pain

how it pierces through.

O teach then me, poor fool, how I must pray to you!

I wish to thank Mrs. Barbara Wild-Bayley for her very subtle suggestions.

I am a bloom and
blow before Thine eye.
Oh virtuous flood of sun,
who, ever unimpaired
me, tiny timid creature,
in life deignst vivify,
beyond this lifetime me
the everlasting spared.

I am a bloom,
at dawn I do disclose,
at dusk reclose my blade,
and alternating, then,
how Thou, sun's fire, may
new-risen, me dispose -
I wake or will my head
to sleep entrust again.

My life is all
Thy Light: my deed, my yearning,
my hope and happiness,
my only and my all.
What am I without Thee
but ever, ever dying,
what have I without Thee
that will my love enthral.

I am far from Thee
Although Thou, sweetest source
of all that living is,
or ever life bestows
art nearest me of all;
conveyst, o craved force,
to all my deepest deep
Thine all-pervading glow.

Lift up, let down!
Mine earthen bounds asunder;
unroot me and undig
me! Loose me; show,
where summer ever is
and sunlight, to my hunger,
Where Thou, Eternal, Sole
and Perfect Bloom, dost blow.

Let all things be
behind, performed, foregone now
that distance between us
and cleavage deep did rend.
Let dawn and dusk and all
that forth must, forth be done now
and me Thine andless Light
let see: my Fatherland!

[p. 274]

 

Then I before,

 

nay, not before Thine eye,

 

but near Thee, next to Thee,

 

in Thee will blossem on,

 

wilt Thou me, little formling,

 

the lifetime not deny,

 

to Thine eternal Light

 

grant me accession.

*

I am of thee

belowward here

with picture nor

with painting,

nor mother dear

with likeness

recalling thee

acquainted.

No pages and

no portraiture

no sculpted work

in stone,

but for the seal

in me, by thee

once left to me

alone.

O might I thee

unworthy ne'er

that likeness be

belying,

but honoured be

it living in

me, honoured in

me dying.