THREE VERSE TRANSLATION - Number 2 |
Swift old Time whose whirling wings forever smite
The tenuous air, and full sail ahead always,
Skips before the wind, and leaves us in a daze,
Mortal enemy of peace, restless by day and night;
Irretrievable Time, whose sharp hungers bite,
Devour and consume man's strongholds, Time never stays
But tosses and turns and destroys, and Kingdoms flays;
Too fast for all the world, what has slowed your flight?
My love since you 're away, I chase with my sorrow
The ever slowing hours, and toil away the morrow
Until evening comes; your absence is distressing.
My longing cannot spur the God of Time ahead.
It seems that longing took its name from that:
Time, I would were short, is long now and depressing.
Note:
#These three different verse renderings were produced by a group of staff and students from the Dutch Department in 1980-81.They were published in the journal Dutch Crossing (number 14, July 1981),
with critical commentaries by the (anonymous) translators on their versions.
Dutch Crossing is in the UCL Library.You may or may not be impressed with these attempts. Can you do better?
Feel free to have a go, but make sure you study the poem first by going to the >working version.
