Lucienne Stassaert

A capella

Language: dutch

Translations: spanish (A capella), french (A capella), german (A capella)

A capella

Gepijnd genot, voltooid verlies
vloeit uit de raten en
de liefde niet.

En wereldvreemder, loos van tijd
orgelt het tij de taal der schaduwen
een voorgezongen, hoger lied.

En gij, niet nader gekwelde
met de lente in de lendenen:
teken de bladstand aan, draai een rad

voor mijn lichaam. Ik ben uw doodsverwante.
En uw pekel, uw netelkoorts -
geen mens die u geneest.

En zie: spinnen weven ijlings hun rag.
Nog legt de roos haar schijnvrucht af:
haar naam blijft roos, opent de nacht.

Translations:

Language: spanish

A capella

Exprimido placer, cumplida pérdida
no de los panales fluyes
o del amor.

Y más ajena al mundo, al tiempo,
entona la marea la lengua de las sombras
un canto más excelso.

Y tú, que ya no sufres el tormento
lumbar de la primavera:
toma nota de la foliación, haz girar una rueda

ante mi cuerpo. Soy tu igual en la muerte.
Y tu salmuera, tu urticaria -
no estoy aquí para sanarte.

Y mira: las arañas tejen su tela presurosas.
La rosa entrega aún su falso fruto:
su nombre sigue siendo rosa, y abre la noche.

Language: french

A capella

Une volupté pressurée, une perte accomplie
coule des rayons de la ruche
mais non l'amour.

Et plus étrangères au temps trompeur,
les grandes orgues de la marée haussent le ton
d'une mélodie déjà chantée dans le langage des ombres.

Et toi, tourmenté en secret
par le printemps qui t'allume le sang:
note le dais de feuillage, leurre

Mon corps. Je suis la parente de ta mort.
Et ta saumure, ta fièvre lancinante –
personne ne pourrait te guérir.

Et vois: en toute hâte les araignées tissent leur toile.
La rose se dépouille encore son faux fruit:
son nom reste rose, ouvre la nuit.

Language: german

A capella

Wonne gepresst, Verlust vollbracht,
fließt aus den Waben
Liebe nicht.

Und weltentfernter, zeitentleert
orgelt die Flut die Schattensprache
ein vorgesungenes, höheres Lied.

Und Du, nicht näher Gequälter,
der du den Lenz in deinen Lenden trägst:
verzeichne Blattstellung, umgaukle

meinen Körper. Ich bin dir todverwandt.
Dein Nesselfieber und dein Salz –
Nicht jemand, der dich heilt.

Und siehe: Spinnen weben flugs ihr Netz.
Noch legt die Rose ihre Scheinfrucht ab:
heißt Rose alle Mal, öffnet die Nacht.

Lucienne Stassaert

* 10.01.1936, Antwerp, Belgium
lives in: Antwerp, Belgium

As a young woman, Lucienne Stassaert (1936) was a promising concert pianist, but quite quickly came to prefer creative to interpretative artistry, exchanging music for literature and painting. She made her debut as a writer in 1964, with the poetic prose book Verhalen van de jonkvrouw met de spade (Tales of the Lady with the Spade). As well as prose, Stassaert also wrote radio plays and stage plays, but above all made a name for herself as a poet. In her work, all kinds of interconnected tensions and oppositions find expression: life and destruction, man and woman, loss and fulfilment, love and death.

Stassaert’s early poetic work is in the tradition of post-experimental poetry of the 1960s and 70s: stylistically striking verses with many symbolically laden images and juxtapositions that often have a concealing or hermetic effect and within which the search for personal identity is central. Her language is evocative, often making use of musical forms, an element which has become much more pronounced in her later works. Her most recent work is less terse and strives to achieve a more open style in which the female voice still resonates.

Over the last few years, Lucienne Stassaert has experienced a tremendous poetic upsurge. In 2004, she compiled the anthology In aanraking (In touch) – a large selection of poems spanning 35 years of writing, introduced by her younger colleague and kindred spirit Bart Vonck. Vonck pointed out that Stassaert lets language ‘laugh loudly and harshly’ in her work - ‘Death is briefly made to look a fool.’

Stassaert seems particularly to gain inspiration from ‘strong’ women and over the past decade, has dedicated herself to translating the works of a number of classical female poets. She has translated selections from the work of Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson, and created modern versions of poems by the 13th century mystic Hadewych, who wrote in Middle Dutch. Other ‘strong’ women from (art) history that have inspired her are the 17th century English writer Aphra Behn, who forms the basis of her novel De lichtvoetige amazone (The light-footed Amazon, 2000), and the French sculptress Camille Claudel, whose life and work form the impetus for Stassaert’s most recent collection of poems In de laai van het vuur (In the Blaze of the Fire, 2007).

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