Reportages
Op 7 oktober 2017 was het vijf jaar geleden dat Ivo Michiels overleed. Lars Bernaerts en Sigrid Bouset vroegen aan acht auteurs en aan zijn echtgenote om hun geliefde auteur sprekend in leven te houden.
Op zondag 8 oktober om 11 u. werd dit huldenummer van DW B ...
Alleen online: Songs for Sarah
Song of the Round Man
(For Sarah when she???s older)
The round and sad-eyed man puffed cigars as if
he were alive. Gillyflowers
to the left of the apple, purple bells to the right
and a grass-covered hill behind.
I am sad today said the sad-eyed man
for I have locked my head in a Japanese box
and lost the key.
I am sad today he told me
for there are gillyflowers by the apple
and purple bells I cannot see.
Will you look at them for me
he asked, and tell me what you find?
I cannot I replied
for my eyes have grown sugary and dim
from reading too long by candlelight.
Tell me what you???ve read then
said the round and sad-eyed man.
I cannot I replied
for my memory has grown tired and dim
from looking at things that can???t be seen
by any kind of light
and I???ve locked my head in a Japanese box
and thrown away the key.
Then I am you and you are me
said the sad-eyed man as if alive.
I???ll write you in where I should be
between the gillyflowers and the purple bells
and the apple and the hill
and we???ll puff cigars from noon till night
as if we were alive.
This Time
(Another for Sarah)
Once I fell in the ocean when
I didn???t know I fell in the ocean
Then Momma got me out
This isn???t true
only something I remember
Once in the park I broke in half
and lost one half
which half I don???t remember
Once I was in a room
It grew larger and larger
why I don???t remember
One time I turned blue all over
then got clear as glass
This really happened
but not to me
Once I couldn???t see
for a while
so I listened lying down
Another time I looked out the window
and saw myself at the window
across the street
This time it was me
As a Real House
(Sarah???s Third Song)
???I said darkling and you said sparkling???
The play-house appears before us
as a real house in the dark
filled with people cut out
of magazines and postcards
and called real people at the start
Why is the curtain partly drawn
and why does the stair turn
to the left as you climb
and the right going down
Here all day it???s midwinter night
and the musicians will continue to play
in the music room
and sleep will never come
This is lesson three
where the fiddler is made real
by the sound she hears
pouring from her fingers
Of this cloth doll which
(Sarah???s Fourth)
Of this cloth doll which
says Oh yes
and then its face changes
to Once upon a time
to Wooden but alive
to Like the real
to Late into the night
to There lived an old
to Running across ice
(but shadows followed)
to Finally it sneezed
to The boat tipped over
to Flesh and blood
to Out of the whale???s mouth
Yes in a Circle
(Sarah???s Fifth)
Yes in a circle the imagined train
word after recent word
you make them up to come to mean
light to shadow day
pond as music???s mirror
trees cut from yarrow stalks
would be real in order to seem
a reasonably green place
a reasonable number of roads
some straight, some curved and narrow
beside rails whose perfect parallels
are nowhere else to be seen
but in a sealed and measured space
called here and now for now
Scattered Song
(Sarah???s Sixth)
Suddenly you are almost too old
for frog tales
though I???m still not
Once a frog spoke into a shell
What came back as its voice was not
Once there was no frog
It stayed out of the story
Where did it stay
Once you were a frog in a play
all green on a Friday
This isn???t memory
Some frogs sound like frogs exactly
others like crickets or owls or cats
I know that???s not a story
Once a frog the size of a penny
sat in my hand silently watching
I don???t know if that???s a story
Small Spelling Song
(Sarah???s Seventh)
Appear appear
in autumn
Drive and drive your car
Have no fear
Drive very far
Don???t stop don???t stop
at all
It???s fall
Red Yellow Blue
(Sarah???s Eighth)
Now that you know all the words
and I have almost forgotten them
Or now that you have experienced rain
for days on end
and learned to paint with red, yellow and blue
those days which seem to have no end
and I see you often walking alone
down the street or else among friends
mindful of company, equally wondering
wherefrom a world???s wrongs stem
And now that you may swim out of sight
if you choose, as choose you must
all along,
a song
De Nederlandse vertaling, 'Liedjes voor Sarah', van Tom van de Voorde vind je in DW B 2012 3 De verwondering.