This week’s Friday Verses are written by Max Greyson. We translated Relativiteit (Relativity). This poem was first published in Dutch in Het Liegend Konijn, a magazine for contemporary Dutch-language poetry.
Max Greyson (b. 1988, Antwerp) is a poet, theater writer and spoken word performer from Antwerp. He is a member of the Un-Label Performing Arts Company, which produces international dance theatre productions.
In 2015 he became vice-champion at the Dutch National Championships of Poetry Slam, receiving acclaim as: the lyrical poet and the innovator of phrases. A year after, his debut collection of poems Madness doesn’t settle was published by De Arbeiderspers. This year his second collection of poems Et alors was published.
Max Greyson is the artistic director of ARType vzw, an organization that features the music theatre collective Voyeurs. Their second music theatre production Voyeurs in BXL premiered in 2019.
As from 2019 he holds a position as researcher at the Antwerp Royal Conservatoire. His project ArtInAD is an artistic research project for integrated audio-description for the blind and visually impaired in music theatre. He is also the resident poet of Cultural Centre De Kern.
Relativity
The house will empty itself
time is relative enough to waste us
Einstein proved that
Tonight our energy is equal
to the mass of avoided glances
which we let break on the ceiling
at the speed of light
We lie in bed, two parallel lines,
like-minded side by side
the question hangs obliquely above our heads,
the square that keeps us together
You tremble, I tremble
everything trembles with us
the wardrobe the bed the hope
What I refused to see
I see quite simply
contorted round your mouth
That we are still bursting with desire
cracking with bliss, dying
of love
(Dutch version below the photo)
Max Greyson© Melanie Mrakovcic
Relativiteit
Het huis zal zichzelf wel legen
de tijd is relatief genoeg om ons te verdoen
dat heeft Einstein bewezen
Vanavond is onze energie gelijk
aan de massa ontweken blikken
die we aan de snelheid van het licht
op het plafond laten breken
We liggen in bed als twee evenwijdige lijnen
gelijkgestemd naast elkaar
de vraag hangt schuin boven ons hoofd
als het kwadraat dat ons bijeenhoudt
Jij trilt, ik tril
alles trilt mee
de kast het bed de hoop
Wat ik niet wilde zien
zie ik zonder meer
om je mond vertrokken
Dat we nog steeds barsten van verlangen
scheuren van geluk, kapotgaan
van liefde
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