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Willem Thies: Snow Will Fall

By Willem Thies, translated by David Colmer
25 January 2023 1 min. reading time Friday Verses

This week’s Friday Verses are written by Willem Thies. We translated Sneeuw zal Vallen (Snow Will Fall). This poem first appeared in Dutch in Het Liegend Konijn, a magazine for contemporary Dutch-language poetry.

Willem Thies (Nijmegen, b. 1973) made his debut in 2006 with the collection Toendra (Tundra), awarded the C. Buddingh’ Prize. It was followed by Na de vlakte (After the Plain, 2008, nomination J.C. Bloem Prize), Twee vogels één kogel (Two Birds One Bullet, 2012), Meer mensen dan reddingsvesten (More People Than Life Jackets, 2015), Na het paringsritueel (After the Mating Ritual, 2018) and Mijn zoon hij zegt (My Son He Says, 2021).

Snow Will Fall

Snow will fall on your dead rituals, the tiny festive flags
you jabbed into an outdated
ordnance survey map. Snow will fall on your gutters,
car bonnets, bristling eyebrows.

Snow will fall on the heart, the bowels of the city.

Snow will fall and white-out everything. Censorship.
The hoofbeat of rail. Trains constantly transporting
troops from the hinterland to the front.
A match will be struck, a face lit eerily,
then erased, swallowed by darkness,
waiting for the first instructions.

(Dutch version below the photo)

Marc Brester Willem Thies Podium Mr Marc Brester aquattroman nl1 Willem Thies
© Marc Brester

Sneeuw zal vallen

Sneeuw zal vallen op je dode rituelen, je kindervlaggetjes
gespietst in een obsolete
stafkaart. Sneeuw zal vallen op je dakgoten,
motorkappen van auto’s, stekels van wenkbrauwen.

Sneeuw zal vallen op het hart, de darmen van de stad.

Sneeuw zal vallen en alles witten. Censuur.
De hoefslag van het spoor. Treinen vervoeren
onafgebroken troepen van het achterland naar het front.
Een lucifer wordt afgestreken, een gezicht spookachtig
verlicht, dan uitgewist, opgeslokt door donker,
wachtend op eerste instructies.

www.willemthies.nl

Marc Brester Willem Thies Podium Mr Marc Brester aquattroman nl1

Willem Thies

poet
photo by Marc Brester

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