Guido Gezelle: Swifts

“See, see, see,
see! see! see!
see!! see!! see!!
                   see!!!”
hear hear these
weeping swifts
twice or thrice
                   three,
sweeping and
weeping there:
“Do we see . . .
                   see
anyone
we can’t flee?
We, we? we??
                   we???”
Peeping and
cheeping, lithe
and disci-
                   plined;
wheeling and
reeling as
quick as the
                   wind;
lifting and
drifting
so swift on the
                   wing,
going and
rowing round
spires they
                   swing.
Down they are
gliding, soon
widening their
                   flight;
skyward are
waving their
wings in the
                   height:
scarcely I
hear these . . . I
no longer
                   see,
singing still
vividly:
“We??? We?? We?
                   We . . .”


Dated 25 May 1897. Tr. Paul Claes & Christine D’haen. Gezelle (1830-99) was a West Flemish priest who's now considered a precursor of modern poetry in Flemish/Dutch. A new bilingual selection of his work, with translations by Paul Vincent, is being published this month by UCL Press. The translation above at least brings across the mechanics of probably untranslatable sensation.