| Starsteps
Straying in the cellars of sleep, Bluebeard. He follows a flute, an inbreath without end or beginning that lures him down the quiet passages past faces, portraits on a wall, a whispering in the dust, through names, women he vaguely recalls to balconies and terraces in his head. The fluting fades. A silver snake glides over the plain to the mountain and stretches itself against the night air to hang between stars. Bluebeard feels flat. His eyes itch. Behind screens the first light is rising. He stretches, reaches through the roof, then sails to the stars, step by step. (From Die burg van hertog Bloubaard (Duke Bluebeard’s Castle), 2000) “Starsteps” translated by Richard Jurgens. The other poems translated by Henning and Hetta Pieterse |
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