Her first collection of poems appeared in 1940. In 1982 she was awarded the renowned Dutch P.C. Hooft Price for literature and in the same year her last poems were published.
This poem comes from the collection Vistas and faces published in 1954.
I have always - just like so many - been fascinated by her poems, which are very accessible and expressive. As early as 1988 I wrote my first composition on her poem Skeleton - a title that may not seem very accessible - but the contrary is the case. It's a good story. You can here listen to that composition and read the poem. (In 2017 I added a piano accompaniment - initially it was only for SATB choir a capella). She gave me personal permission for the use of the poem at the time and she was pleased by the result very much.
That has undoubtedly also been an incentive for me to now take up a number of her poems for new compositions - thirty years later and therefore in a different style. Fortunately, the Dutch publisher Van Oorschot Publishers has granted me the right of use.
On Wikipedia there is ample information available on M. Vasalis.
I'm sorry to say, that I don't know if any English translations of her poems have been published. Well, at least you one now on this site.
Het gedicht
De winter en mijn lief zijn heen.
Er zit een merel op het dak,
zijn keel beweegt, zijn snavel beeft
alsof hij in zichzelve sprak.
Hij luistert: uit een verre boom
klinkt als het ketsen van twee stenen
een vonkenregen van verlangen
zo luid, zo helder en zo bang.
De merel stort zich met een kreet
vol wildheid in de voorjaarsvlagen.
Ik kan het bijna niet verdragen:
mijn voorjaar en mijn lief zijn heen.
Translation (for reference only)
Winter and my love are gone.
There's a blackbird on the roof,
his throat moves, his beak trembles
as if he were speaking to himself.
He listens: from a distant tree
sounds like two stones ricocheting
a sparkling shower of desire
so loud, so clear and so scared.
The blackbird rushes with a cry
full of wildness in the spring gusts.
I can hardly bear it:
my spring and my love are gone.
(© Translation: Aristos)
Below you can get an impression of this composition in its latest version.
This music is an electronic representation and is therefore not comparable to a human version! For example, one does not hear the words of the sung text by the choir, but only "aah" and "ooh". The instruments, on the other hand, are quite realistic thanks to the latest electronics. It remains, however, that the whole of the interpretation of the conductors/musicians is missing and therefore may sound somewhat sterile
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© The complete copyright of the music (also this electronic version) has been deposited. This means that you can only listen but not use it nor partially, nor completely for your own purposes. Let alone that you use it for your own performances or productions.
For citation rights please contact the publisher and the Buma/Stemra organization in the Netherlands.
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