Edward Thomas: Twee gedichten

Lights out

I HAVE come to the borders of sleep,
The unfathomable deep
Forest where all must lose
Their way, however straight,
Or winding, soon or late;
They caannot choose.

Many a road and track
That, since the dawn's first crack,
Up to the forest brink,
Deceived the travellers,
Suddenly now blurs,
And in they sink.

Here love ends,
despair, ambition ends;
All pleasure and all trouble,
Although most sweet and bitter,
Here ends in sleep that is sweeter
Than tasks most noble.

There is not any book
Or face of dearest look
That I would nog turn from now
To go into te unknown
I must enter, and leave, alone,
I know not how.

The tall forest towers;
Its cloudy foliage lowers
Ahead, shelf above shelf; 
Its silence I hear and obey
That I may lose my way
And myself.

De Engelse dichter Edward Thomas (1878-1917)

Out in the dark

Out in the dark over the snow
The fallow fauns invisible go
With the fallow doe;
And the winds blow
Fast as the stars are slow.

Stealthily the dark haunts round
And, when the lamp goes, without sound
At a swifter bound
Than the swiftest hound,
Arrives, and all else is drowned;

And star and I and wind and deer,
Are in the dark together,—nesr,
Yet far,—and fear
Drums on my ear
In that sage company drear.

How weak and little is the light,
All the universe of sight,
Love and delight,
Before the might,
If you love it not, of night.

EDWARD THOMAS (1878-1917)

Edward Thomas is één dergenen van wie in het programma Words and music van BBC Radio 3, op vrijdag 31 december poëzie wordt voorgedragen, naast die van vier andere Engelse dichters. Meer daarover in onze bijdrage op de zustersite Tempel der Letteren van heden.