Catherine Hales
english
[leave nimmen wit hoe't wy yn eardere libbens...] (fy)
leave nimmen wit hoe't wy yn eardere libbens
inoar foarby ronnen of de bus misten dêr't ien
fan ús beiden yn siet of do myn suster ús mem
yn wiest en it tusken ús neat wurde mocht om't
der te folle jierren of in leauwe tusken ús
dreaun sa plastysk as in kontinint sil de ôfstân
wol ris west ha ik wie miskien drok dwaande mei
it útfinen fan fjoer wylst do en dyn frijer
oare kant de oseaan de kearsen oanstutsen
hâld ik dy al wer te stiif fêst ik wol dy net
fynknipe mar ik bin bang en bliid tagelyk dat
der noait mear tusken ús wêze sil as dit hielal
dêr't wy net by inoar yn komme kinne omdat
it te lyts is foar it fertriet fan twa dy't ien wurde
leave lit tiid ús fan inoar ôf skuorre at wy ien foar ien
deageane wy slaan werom mei brêgen fan wurden
From: De wizers yn it read
Leeuwarden: Bornmeer, 2000
Audio production: NLPVF, 2005
Excerpts from Ghost Currents
on the back of night, on her back naked
(and)
the space station low on the horizon, the sleeping hut on the slope, the genetic laboratory, the a + e unit, the bank headquarters, the studio
of bare boards and fly meshes, when the humming
starts up again and the wind after
midnight, the first faint birdsong, stars
still visible, the termite mound
nearby, the silent helicopter
landing place, we
lied sleepless
gender white, skin colour
female –
when the creatures
were still human, inseparable species
language of all –
the grass
runs overland, up hill, down hill, turns to rice
and tea and back to grass –
then hands like tongues, the first
grammar
nine hundred souls, still hirsute
trust was a smell – as the smell
penetrated her, as he moved her cold limbs and fell
asleep and only the smell still
moved her from within
and this will
in their skeletons by the side of the road selling
flies and plastic glasses
breathing wall of weave and we
as though trickled into tropical sheets, tattooed into each other
before the dawning morning call – an over-watchful
lizard with transparent, shining dragonflies
sleeping in its neon belly, dragon-
flies, Ginger Bee
eating you alive
I am the bird
gut they have to travel through, sleeping germs, and I
am the sleeper that travels
and the praying
mantis, its morning murmuring of arms and breathing
with the lambent lizard-tail
left behind in its belly,
the handphone transparently peeping
this gleaming girl
driving through the early evening city, drizzled asphalt, then
stubble roadsides, then places
to fill up, tar traps, parcels of land
small as handkerchiefs; she’s not wearing her glasses because her moped
kows the way, the moped
sees everything
I licked
it, a thin-skinned, veiny membrane, translucently black, and
the waste tips
stuck in the landscape, gliding past, their flickering
under the skin, fluttering
over the smouldering, sweating casks, I licked
it all, while gliding
past
only matter has
created matter, nobody created we, we first
created God –
what for
gas
was the oldest silence in the world –
I nod, bound in a head-
scarf, floor-length smile in the eye-slit
of the guest culture: tolerance, yes, I
nod (impure), nod, nod: prayers for
a better world yes yes –
we travelled (or rather:) were travelled, someone
paid for the room, gave us a king-size bed, a curtain
of rainy season rustling, we already a jungle
of hair and teeth, in which your back
extinguished the flickering light, the rattling
of cooling fins, the smell of fly
poison, we
are
billions and billions, every cent
of which
wages war
a few words to redeem, goodness
perhaps, joy, mercy, or freedom, diversity, doubt, or
conscience or courage – the words redeem
or what they mean, or redeem
at all –
or at least: and
flying dragon
in my shoulder, rose-
fingered
phoenix, in flood-nights it flies out
with burning claws –
everyone related
to everyone, even the mutants
related to everyone