yes and no
As translator Judith Wilkinson remarks, the poetry of Toon Tellegen lends itself well to translation, "not only because of its linguistic simplicity - one might almost call it prose-poetry - but also because of a certain timeless, 'placeless' quality. His concise poems sometimes read like parables..."
Yes has a task:
it protects people.
It kisses them and tucks them in,
tidies up the love left lying around
and sends prying eyes packing:
the people are asleep, they've been playing, they're tired.
(From 'Yes and No'.)
No was a small word,
an insignificant word.
It listened to the large words:
Yes and We and Always.
It studied the crumbs of their thoughts
that they dropped from their table.
It was not a stupid word.
One day it crept into the kitchen,
climbed onto the sink,
grabbed a knife
and ate it.
(Words can eat things.)
It was still a small word,
but no longer an insignificant word - that never again -
and it returned to the room,
sat under the table
and listened.
jorrit , 12-04-’06 23:14