MVVM: 'Vincent's Ravens' (poem)

Sonja van Mechelen

VINCENT'S RAVENS
(original Raven van Vincent)

I want you to pronounce his name vensahn
vensahn's ravens when the cypresses put up their hair
humans surround his yellow house like bumblebees
flowers for vensahn clubbed to death by hot wind
rain for vensahn curbed in the blue derangement
ravens for vensahn in the beloved's raven hair
when she's registering standing tiptoe in front of mirrors
blood-stained presents with those our lives are brutalized
and the mistrals of passion fear vensahn
in which the trees tremble like easels

i live in the century after you
but i live back so easily
speak his name do do speak his name
vensahn
decorated with the millions of ravens of his stock

and she
who dropped the comb
tore the black hair
and croaked
c r o a k e d
C R O A K E D ! ! !

original in Deze Taal from 21-27 aSWW
translated by Vincent van Mechelen, 69 aSWW

The poet and painter Sonja van Mechelen is my late mother, Sonja van Mechelen-de Bie.
The Vincent of this poem is the painter Vincent van Gogh, to whom i owe my middle name. Van Gogh spent more than four years in France and in French Vincent is pronounced approximately ven-SAHN.
I translated the original in Deze Taal (Nederlands) not only into This Language but also into Ĉi Tiu Lingvo (Esperanto). That, much older, translation is entitled "Korvoj de Vincent".