Venice masks

Wednesday, 26 March 2025

The Language - Gerrit Kouwenaar

Birds are owning the language 
I am too man to fly 
I stand on the world like a building 
constructed and thick from earth

I am just about the person 
who would fit inside of the walls 
and flow out behind the windows 
of the drawing room on the rear

it smells there of love and compost 
a plant is put up in a cage 
birds are owning the language 
and man hides away in the word —

Gerrit Kouwenaar (1923 - 2014) Netherlands
Translated by Hans Koning
Source: Modern Dutch Poetry edited by Hans Koning, Netherlands information service, 1955 

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