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Poetry

If later, or sooner, it is

Translated from Dutch

If later, or sooner, it is,
or becomes, sayable-this is the most
thingable it will be; best of all,
let my text encircle someonewho foists it on himself,

or by whom it's fobbed off with itself;
if smoke fails to announce the outcome,
I might as well go to sea:
to let oneself be blown away.

From Springvossen (Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2000). By arrangement with the estate of Hans Faverey.

English

If later, or sooner, it is,
or becomes, sayable-this is the most
thingable it will be; best of all,
let my text encircle someonewho foists it on himself,

or by whom it's fobbed off with itself;
if smoke fails to announce the outcome,
I might as well go to sea:
to let oneself be blown away.

From Springvossen (Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2000). By arrangement with the estate of Hans Faverey.