The Untranslatable: Uitwaaien

By Thomas Page

The Untranslatable

This is a series of poems of words that do not directly translate into English. I have tried to capture the essence of the word in a poem.

 

The years are the like the bricklayers with a bounty of concrete

Piling on the shoulders bulking with the pride of atlas broken

The neck no longer telescoping

Saddled with the blinders of the Preakness beasts

Set on getting to the checkered line that they are all destined to cross.

However, the wind can change the tide

And allow for a moment of respite to re-orientate

In the lands absent of the walls concealing the buds from the light

With the promise of the platonic sunshine filtered through the laurels

In the diorama viewed by the more-enlightened—

The tripled poison in the apex.

The windwalk along the banks and the fields

Although brief

Can clear the head

Like the rainbow through the rainclouds

Or the birds in the dead tree

Singing songs of life in the graveyards

For both the fingers and the phalanges

To strum their chords

With the wind at its dusk and its dawn

To refresh.

 

Language: Dutch