
THE DIENG PLATEAU
The silted crater field contracts and expands.
Through invisible paths of refuse and stench
we had to make our way from temples to a Coloured Lake.
How much belief was ever thrown out here?
The women in the sulphur-yellow grass laughed
at your nudity, spat sirih at me.
The eldest, with the eyes of the lake, declined
the offer and made a downward gesture.
Staring in her blindness at my screen,
I translate so much later from what she muttered:
‘The lines. The intersections of the world.
Those of your wife. Respect her mourning.’


Publisher: In de Knipscheer, December 2003.
Book: € 15,00, cd (music by Dirk Stromberg): € 18,00. Set book + cd: € 29,50.
Postbox 6107, 2011 HC Haarlem, The Netherlands.
www.alberthagenaars.nl
www.indeknipscheer.nl