translations

 

the hairdresser

 

 

 

‘I’ll manage’

she says

 

she cuts the hair in layers

curl, curl, auburn

goes nicely with                       

your green-grey eyes

 

am I her work of art

I can almost hear Brahms

as in the great dictator

with Chaplin as the hairdresser

 

with Chaplin as the dictator

all I look is old

compared to her

at the same time we

 

are together in

the mirror. ‘I’ll manage’

she says ‘but will you’

the chessboard a curious story

 

  

still I don’t know

how the other’s

little world lives

 

 I am distracted

 breath is important

  

 he was always angry when

 he had’nt won

 especially then love

 for him I

 

are you playing the cheat

are you playing second voice

are yoy playing matecheck

 

are you mean

when you don’t want to choke on

playing lovingly

 

there, there

a game’s a game

message

 

 

 

he sets to

does what he must

 

eyes closed

to their birthdays

and proverbs

 

if they’re far enough away

if it’s possible, unnoticed

 

they are most kind

they are most discrete

 

monster

 

pull the chain

hands to ears

 

and there it is again

his world collapses

 

 

translated by Willem Groenewegen