Instant Blood
THE MARRIAGE
When he perceived how mist of time
extinguished the sparks in his wife's eyes,
enervated her cheeks, cleaved her forehead,
he turned himself away, devoured with regret.
He sweared and drawed his beard.
He stared at her, but couldn't desire anymore.
He saw the greatest sin change into devil's duty,
and how she looked up at him as a dying horse.
But she didn't die, although his infernal mouth
sucked the narrow out of her bones, that still went on carrying her.
She didn't dare to speak anymore, to ask or to complaint,
she shivered where she stood, but lived and kept healthy.
He thought: I beat her to death and put the house on fire.
I have to wash the mould of my stiff feet,
and ran through fire and water
to another love in another country.
But beating her to death: he didn't do it.
Because: between dream and deed,
there are laws in between and practical objections;
but also melancholy, that none can explain,
and comes at eve when people go to sleep.
So years went by: the children grew up,
and saw how the man who was their father,
was sitting by the fire, petrified and silent,
with a dangerous and forgotten look in his eyes.
Yvan's translation of "Het Huwelijk" by Willem Elsschot
CLICK
table table table table{border-style:none.. Home | Browse | Search | Invite | Film | Mail | Blog | Favorites | Forum | Groups | Events | Videos | Music | Comedy | Classifieds ..
