In memory of
Paul van Ostaijen
Roseyellow and rosered
if you see that the clouds are
on the western horizon
ashgray purplegray
and if you feel the evening on the eastern horizon
on the western horizon like a stranded boat
on the eastern horizon like the curtains in your office
not like the lace curtains in your living room
but like the dirty ones in your office
then take your forehead in your left hand
as a thinker takes a skull in his hand
in the left hand the head
in the right hand some fruit
of young trees - a commonplace symbol -
and spread your thoughts in a circle

When your thinking is thought
in a circle
the hours of your loneliness go round
and where you once scattered your loneliness
from the western horizon to the eastern horizon
hang before the western horizon the grey curtains in your office
behind which your boat was stranded

Translation:John Stevens Wade