For the faraway princess
Now we will never meet again;
The world shouldered itself between us.
Sometimes at night we both look out the window,
But different stars we see in different times.Your land is so far removed from mine:
From light to farthest darkness—that I
Travelling restlessly on wings of desire,
Would greet you with my dying breath.But if it is true that the strongest desire
Is carried to the farthest star by great dreams:
Then I will come,
Then I will come, every night.
Voor de verre prinses, J.J. Slauerhoff (1898 – 1936), literal translation by me. You can improve the translation in the comments if you like.
February 23rd, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Her name is Angela Saxton (nee Powell). She lives in France. I live in England.
January 24th, 2009 at 9:25 am
[...] This is the Slauerhoffbridge, named after a local poet. I translated his “Voor de verre prinses” once, but not very well, so I’ll just link to it. [...]