Last verse:
Zo gingen jaren heen. De kindren werden groot en zagen dat de man die zij hun vader heetten, bewegingloos en zwijgend bij het vuur gezeten, een godvergeten en vervaarlijke aanblik bood.
So went the years past. The children grew and saw the man whom they called their father, seated still and silent by the fire, bode a God-forgotten and dangerous countenance.
—Wm. Elsschot aka J-A de Ridder
I swear, this poem still sticks with me though it’s been ten years since I was on the continent where it was penned.
June 14th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Hey! You know, this poem sticks with me too. I can remember you posting “Tussen droom en daad staan wetten in de weg” on the chalkboard at the house on the Nieuwe Rijn. Remember listening to it in the language lab? Put the koptelefoon on!
It’s so beautiful despite its rather grim subject matter.
Hope to see you Saturday. We will probably be out and about tonight and tomorrow as well. Email or call me if you like.
June 17th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Thinking about the house on de nieuwe rijn puts me in the mood for a HENDO.
mmmmm…. frietjes met.
July 3rd, 2007 at 2:36 am
You know, Dan and I have talked many times (very seriously) about buying a house in Leiden to retire to so that we can perv over students in our dotage. I confessed to him that every time I thought of that canal house it was the one at Nieuwe Rijn 72… He said he thought the same thing!
Had a great time in NYC. Let’s get together and I’ll show the photos and such. Peter (Lorraine’s man) picked up a crackhead, and I met Lorraine’s crazy sister.