Els Moors

[op het dak van het huis met de windwijzer]

Language: dutch

Translations: german ([auf dem dach des hauses mit der wetterfahne]), english ([on the roof of the house with the wind vane]), slovenian ([na strehi hiše, ki ima vetrnico])

[op het dak van het huis met de windwijzer]

op het dak van het huis met de windwijzer
zet een reiger een steile vlucht af
de gasten wandelen traag naar
de tot aan de rand gevulde vijver

dit is een middag buiten en het regent
ramen zijn deuren om doorheen te stappen
een hond rent achter het kind op het gazon
stemmen blijven hangen boven het gras

het geluid wordt gedempt door het geluid van de snelweg

de man die ongevraagd naar boven liep slaapt
met het gezicht diep in de kussens
op het feest is iemand onwel geworden
op het feest loopt altijd iemand met een strop om de hals

de vuilniszak hangt aan de klink van de deur
het mes wordt in de cake gezet

Translations:

Language: german

[auf dem dach des hauses mit der wetterfahne]

auf dem dach des hauses mit der wetterfahne
startet der reiher zu einem steilen flug
die gäste spazieren gemächlich zu dem
randvollen weiher

dies ist ein nachmittag und es regnet
fenster sind türen zum durchgehen
ein hund rennt auf dem rasen dem kind hinterher
stimmen bleiben hängen über dem gras

das geräusch wird gedämpft durch das geräusch vom schnellweg

der mann der ungefragt nach oben ging schläft
das gesicht tief in den kissen
auf dem fest ist jemandem übel geworden
auf dem fest hat immer jemand einen strick um den hals

der müllsack hängt an der türklinke
das messer wird in den kuchen gesteckt

Language: english

[on the roof of the house with the wind vane]

on the roof of the house with the wind vane
a heron takes off on a steep incline
all the guests walk slowly to
the pond that is filled to the brim

this is an afternoon and it’s raining
windows become doors to step through
a dog chases after a child on the lawn
voices stay behind above the grass

the sound is muffled by the sound of the motorway

the man who went upstairs without asking is asleep
with his head deep in the pillows
at the party someone is being sick
at the party there’s always someone with a noose around his neck

the bin liner hangs from the door handle
a knife is stuck into the cake

Language: slovenian

[na strehi hiše, ki ima vetrnico]

na strehi hiše, ki ima vetrnico,
čaplja zaključi svoj strmi polet
gostje stopajo počasi k
zvrhano polni strugi vneme

to je popoldne zunaj in dežuje
okna so vrata, da stopiš skoznje
pes prek trate teče za otrokom
glasovi obvisijo nad travo

zvoke zaduši hrup motorjev z avtoceste

mož, ki je nepovabljen stekel gor,
je pogreznil obraz v blazine in spi
na zabavi je nekoga obšla slabost
na zabavi je zmeraj kdo z zanko okrog vratu

vreča z odpadki visi na kljuki vrat
nož zareže v pogačo

Els Moors

* 16.07.1976, Poperinge, Belgium
lives in: Brussels, Belgium

Els Moors (1976) received a warm welcome from Flemish and Dutch critics alike, as the first young Flemish poet to have appeared on the scene for a long time. Her debut Er hangt een hoge lucht boven ons (There is a tall sky above us; 2006) was nominated for the C. Buddingh’-prize and was awarded the Herman de Coninck prize for best poetry debut, where the jury described it as a, ‘debut of one’s dreams’.

In There Is A Tall Sky Above Us a rather peculiar ‘I’ describes the ongoing amazement about a rather peculiar world. Important within this world are men; men who are constantly coming and going. In ‘de witte fuckende konijnen’ (the white shagging rabbits), the cycle at the heart of the volume, Moors convincingly shows that the urge is omnipresent and all consuming, showing man’s inner beast. One could say that the volume contains a high quantity of Sex and the City style within its pages, but this comparison would be misplaced. Moors’ humour has a bitter quality and is in no way expressed in one-liners. More often than not, the humour is found in the absurd nature of a situation or in the disruptive nature of an observation. Small, everyday scenes are dissected and then screwed back together again. There is a constant menace at work.

When at a garden party a cake is being cut, then this action appears as equally violent as the shower scene in Psycho. A violent atmosphere also permeates the poem in which a handicapped city pigeon ‘is put out of its misery’ while the main character seeks out this suffering with positive glee. In ‘the water floating by is the water’ loneliness and paranoia rule. The main character can only look at – the perhaps deceptive beauty of – the facades that float past her. She cannot go behind the house fronts, the fronts that will both reflect her voice and hide the people around her, the people that appear to have conspired against her so she will lose her compass north. In the final poem the protagonist does attain a certain sense of domesticity and happiness. Her homecoming is something of a relief. Yet while the inevitability of the Other is confirmed in the final verses, it seems at the same time quite a matter of course that this Other will disappear.

These somewhat sadomasochistic poems in a way resemble (expressionist) paintings. While sometimes appearing quite jumpy, Moors’ work shows evidence of a strong feeling for composition, both in content and in form. Note, for example, the continuing play between vitality and stasis and the continuing play between horizontality and verticality. The latter is already expressed in the title of the book, in which a ‘tall sky’ – Might we interpret this as a deep blue sky? As the column of smoke from the Bible book of Exodus perhaps? Or a whirlwind? – hangs threateningly above us. Undoubtedly this strong feeling for composition and the equally strong provocative nature of the poems are partly the reason why these poems are already deemed classics of the 21st century and Els Moors one of the rising stars of Flemish poetry.

In 2008 Els Moors made her debut as a prose writer with Het verlangen naar een eiland (Longing For An Island), a novel about love, sex and the yearning for the Other.

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