Monday, September 27, 2010

Two musicians, one a poet

Here the incredible duo enjoyed by all: Lucienne Stassaert, the Grande Dame of Poetry reading from the cycle: Long enough.
It is a heart wrenching end of love situation, sharply formulated, merciless in its honesty.

One of Lucienne's poetry's strong points is the rhythm. She played even in the Queen Elizabeth competition. When proofreading a translation of her work, she will try out the cadence of the new coat for her feelings and thoughts.

Here she plays with her friend Jean Demey.

  pictures: © Bram Goots


Jean  does grand improvisations.
That is how we met. He has a feel for the moods and the color of the words. His playing with Lucienne's words was in different shades of blues. in the past  he performed with poets as Paul Snoek, Hugo Raes, Willem Roggeman, Cees Buddingh and Gust Gils,



*
Lang genoeg
I
Lang genoeg quatre-mains gespeeld
zonder één keer op te kijken,
na te gaan zoals Orfeus
of mijn lief al dan niet nog bestond.

Lang genoeg bij hoge noten
een bas gemist bij het samenspel
om de toonloze stilten te wegen
vóór en na de kleine dood.

Jodelen kon. En zich te pletter ademen
zoals minnaars op het hoogst van de min
in volle vlam uit het licht vallen
en in den blinde uit elkaar.

Tot op een zeker zwart-wit moment,
juist afgesteld en gekadreerd,
de waarheid als een inmaakbom
van verrot fruit aan scherven sprong:

Hij speelde al jaren niet meer mee.
*
Long enough
I
Played a duet long enough
without looking up once,
checking as Orpheus
whether or not my lover still existed.

Long enough with high notes
missed a bass in this ensemble
to weigh the toneless silences
before and after la petite mort.

Yodelling possible. Breathing oneself to pieces
as lovers at the height of ardour
in full flame fall out of the light
blindly fall apart.

Till a certain black/white moment,
correctly focused and framed,
the truth like a preserving bottle bomb
of rotten fruit exploding in shards:

He hadn’t played along for years.

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