please note John Irons blog, and Elizabeth Eybers poem:

please note an addition to my list of blog links:

John Irons—

... his blog is filled with his wonderful translations from the verse of various countries—

I found it by looking via google for poems in English of the Afrikaans poet Elizabeth Eybers.

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and: here's a trans by Jacquelyn Pope of Eybers, from PoChiMag:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/237014

...
Here's the trans I found, by John Irons (from his blog):

Poem by the Afrikaans poet
Elisabeth Eybers

The prayer of  stiffening souls

Make us immortal for one single hour,

grant us the folly of one mindless deed!

The eye that for no lasting goal would scour

but, feverish and wide, would only heed

what’s caught in a pale face – the instant’s flare –

not mourning for the ashes when it’s spent,

a scream that hangs there in the listless air

like blood-red rose held in a haze of scent!

Our hearts have never been so still, so bare...

The darkness like a wall begins to tower,

dividing us from life-and-death, and there

we talk of it while late-night hours recede...

Make us immortal for one single hour,

grant us the folly of one mindless deed!  
...




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