Tinkend oan in ferbân tusken de bylden fan metafoaren
De wâlddowen sjonge lâns de Perkiomen.
De bears, noch bang foar de yndianen, sit djip.
Yn it iene ear fan de fisker, dy’t alhiel
Ien ear is, sjonge de wâlddowen in inkeld liet.
De bearzen sjogge aloan foarút, streamop, ien
Kant út, en skrilje tebek foar it spatterjen
Fan wetterige spearen. De fisker is alhiel
Ien each, wêryn’t de do liket op in do.
Der is ien do, ien bears, ien fisker. En dochs,
Koe wurdt roekoe, roekoekoe. Hoe ticht
Komt elke fariant by it net ponearre tema…
Yn dat iene ear docht dy miskien perfekt oan:
Set er it útien. Yn dat iene each springt de do
Miskien yn byld en bliuwt dan dochs in do.
De fisker is miskien dy iene minske
Yn waans boarst de do mûlk delstrykt en ferstillet.
Thinking of a Relation between the Images of Metaphors
The wood-doves are singing along the Perkiomen.
The bass lie deep, still afraid of the Indians.
In the one ear of the fisherman, who is all
One ear, the wood-doves are singing a single song.
The bass keep looking ahead, upstream, in one
Direction, shrinking from the spit and splash
Of waterish spears. The fisherman is all
One eye, in which the dove resembles a dove.
There is one dove, one bass, one fisherman.
Yet coo becomes rou-coo, rou-coo. How close
To the unstated theme each variation comes . . .
In that one ear it might strike perfectly:
State the disclosure. In that one eye the dove
Might spring to sight and yet remain a dove.
The fisherman might be the single man
In whose breast, the dove, alighting, would grow still.
Ut Transport to Summer, 1947. De Perkiomen Creek is in sydrivier fan de Schuylkill River yn Pennsylvania.