De snieman
Men moat doel hawwe oer winter
En nim de froast, de dinnetûken
Mei in koarste snie, yn eagenskou;
It in hiel skoft kâld hân hawwe
En skôgje de mei iis opwrede jeneverbei,
De spjirren rûch yn de fiere glinster
Fan de jannewaarjesinne; en tink
Oan gjin misêre yn it lûd fan de wyn,
Yn it lûd fan in pear blêden,
Dat it lûd is fan it lân
Fol fan deselde wyn
Dy’t waait yn deselde bare oarde
Foar de harker dy’t harket yn de snie
En, sels neat, neat skôget
Dat der net is en it neat dat der is.
The Snow Man
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
Ut Harmonium, 1923
