Simon Oosting was the RIXT Poet of the Month in March. You can find the translation of his poem ‘On the line’ below. The original Frisian poem is linked here.
On the line
i) (on China)
like the old poet said
grey and brown the land and
graves along the roads
and everywhere people
in excess
ii) (love worn-out)
she was one of the hippies
in sixty-eight
with ribbons on her skirt and
a band around her hair
which was as free as her
love not war
no
now she is a limp blanket
on an electric bike
who barks at me
I’m in her way
walking with my suitcases
on the cycle path
worn-out
love
no is
now is
an awfully thin line
between then and later
now is
no love
iii) (uncertainty principle)
the train was going to Leiden
and if I
cat in the box
had remained seated
I would have gone into the past
now I alight at Schiphol
and enter China
iv) (procession)
as we travel so we live
we are where we are
the things
whatever they may be
a square a park
an abandoned village
a grandfather who sings about Mao
and plays the Erhu
the temple of the snake
pass me by in a procession
others are standing at the forbidden city
in queues of about one and a half kilometre
v) (Schrödinger’s cat)
Schrödinger’s cat lives with us
he rubs against my legs
vi) (diamonds and rust)
what once was coal has become diamonds
what is shiny metal will turn into rust
vii) (sublimation)
the boundary between ice and vapour contain no water
that’s why the now doesn’t exist in the sublimation of was and will be
now is a dream
viii) (Qinghe Station)
two men are filling a machine
with water cola cold tea
the first one takes the tiny bottles
one after another
out of small boxes
the second one has a pen and is writing
on a strip of paper
for each bottle
a mark
ix) (near Zhangjiakou)
in between tradition and modernity
the villages are emptying out
and a shepherd is happy
with a bar of chocolate
x) (Beijing New Year)
the snake
its lanterns are like balloons
caught on the thousands of balconies
of skyscrapers
in the
city’s skyline
we camp out on a strip
of land we know
can’t sit still
it drifts in the direction
of the skyscrapers
coming unmistakably closer
to the gravestones
along the roads of
the grey and brown land
now is then and there
the last resting place
of the cat
© Simon Oosting
translation: Simon Oosting & Trevor Scarse