Edwin de Groot was RIXT-poet of the month March 2019. You can read his original Frisian poems of that month here. One of them – On the poles it is cold (still) – is published here in translation.
On the poles it is cold (still)
In the villages in the early hours of the morning
colourful cockrels and everwhere the blossom of the elderberry
beautiful bright white butterflies flew around and every now and then one that ’s black
who wasn’t destined to grow old, catching the eyes of the birds
until the villages ended up in soot and the whites being preyed upon
meanwhile the black ones greedy guzzling their colour from the chimeys
that also ended and it showed: safekeeping
is a cautious coat in the colour of pepper and salt
© Edwin de Groot Translation: Trevor M. Scarse