Lucebert

Translated by David Colmer

the school of poetry

I’m no sweet singer,
I am the nimble swindler
of love, with under her the hate
and on top, a cackling mate.


politics is born of lyricism,
and I am nothing but rebellion’s bellman
with the tainted fodder of my mysticism, 
deceit that nurses virtue back from health.


as I report the velvet poets’
meek and humanistic demise,
the weeping hangmen’s iron throats
all open for a musical reprise.


yet I, who live in this volume
like a rat in a trap, long for the sewers
of revolution and cry: rhyme-rats, pillory,
pillory this far too pretty school of poetry.



*

I strive by poetic means 
that is to say 
simplicity’s luminous waters 
to express the abundance
of life in its entirety 
 
if I had not been a man 
equal to the mass of mankind 
but if the I that I was had been
the angel of stone or liquid 
birth and decay would not have touched me
the road from abandonment to community 
the stones stones birds birds animals animals road
would not be as soiled 
as now in my poems 
which are snapshots of that road 

in this day what has always been called 
beauty beauty has burnt her face 
she no longer consoles mankind 
she consoles larvae reptiles rats 
but frightens mankind 
and subdues it with the realisation 
of being a breadcrumb on the apron of the universe 

no longer is it only evil 
the thrust to the heart that makes us cower or rebel 
but good as well
an embrace too makes us fumble in desperation
at that abundance 

this is why I sought out
language in its beauty 
where I heard that it was no more human 
than the lisp of shadow 
the stutter of deafening sunlight


the ancient sings:


there is not more in little
neither is there less
what was is still uncertain
what will be will be will-less
it must first be to be in earnest
remembering is no refuge
and haste remains in place

everything of value is vulnerable
enriched by being touchable
and always on a line

like the heart of time
like the heart of time

 Lucebert (1924-1994) was one of the leading figures, if not the leading figure in the Vijftigers and known for rich complex poetry in which rhythm and sound matter more than unambiguous meaning. His work remains influential in Dutch poetry to this day. He was also a painter with close links to Cobra, and for a long period from the late fifties concentrated on this as his chief artistic expression. A multi-volume bilingual edition of his collected poetry in the translation of Diane Butterman is currently in production at Green Integer, with the first volume published in 2010.






The originals of ‘the school of poetry’, ‘I strive by poetic means’ and ‘the ancient sings’ are in verzamelde gedichten, De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam, 2002

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