Willemien Spook
‘Oever van de stad’
The edge of the city
‘Oever van de stad’
translated by Margriet Boleij
with Mary Burdett-Jones
I am standing in a rain that ticks little holes
in the ring-dyke, silly tyrant,
good-natured and earthy,
who fell asleep like a crying child
on a gritty four-poster
in a polder full of puddles and pools.
I am no wind, no dyke, no water.
I am feet and hands, ears and eyes
to see metro, flat and minaret
like brothers set at the edge.
I feel the wind that skims along Schalkwijk*
about which people sneer.
But where I find this – all this –
Where Lord Meadow devotes himself
to his cows, their heads bent
like me: small out of shame
not to be cattle where there are so many cattle,
not grass where the greenery is lush and
not wings where everything is bird.
A high-shouldered heron
plays Bavo**along a Spaarne ditch.***
It splashes gold for whoever wants to hear
how rain is quietly ticking little holes in
Schalkwijk about which one sneers
and my heart has gone to live in my home.
* Schalkwijk is the largest borough of the city of Haarlem.
** The neo-romanesque cathedral of St Bavo in Haarlem.
*** The ditches which surround Haarlem are connected to the river Spaarne.
© copyright translation Margroet Boleij 2023
First published on Willemien Spooks website: