In this new blog, I intend to honour Dutch poems and songs by transferring them into English. My first contribution is the song Zondagmiddag Buitenveldert, written by Dutch writer, poet, translator and journalist Michel van der Plas in 1969. The song, which was performed by Dutch singer and comedian Frans Halsema, is about a newly-constructed neighbourhood in the city of Amsterdam.
Zondagmiddag
Buitenveldert (Frans Halsema; author: Michel van der Plas)
Buitenveldert
on a Sunday Afternoon
A
Sunday afternoon draws near.
In
Buitenveldert, skies have cleared.
The
blocks of flats are tall, well-built.
All
space between is empty sky.
A
boy and girl are passing by
in
solitude, in love, and chilled.
The
grass strip by the co-op store
is
far too fresh, too six-by-four,
too
neat between the asphalt lanes.
He
says "I want to sleep with you".
She
cannot hear; his words are shooed
by
the howling of a landing plane.
Men
moving like in silent films
stare
out the window, looking dim,
until
the start of Peyton Place
and
peer over the TV guide
to
follow - for there's time to bide -
the
couple in that dismal space.
The
girl says "Oh, I love you so".
The
boy thinks "Where's a place to roll".
All
hope appears in vain.
He
drives his nails into her hand
and
low across the stretched-oud land
skims
past another plane.
They're
standing there, lost in the drear.
He
thinks "If I just took her here
in
front of all the neighbourhood".
She
thinks "Those buildings may be ready
around
the time we will get married".
But
God knows when that time is due.
It's
Sunday afternoon, non-stop.
From
tower block to tower block,
folks
say "It looks like rain".
The
two seek cover in a porch
from
publics, voids and rains that pour.
In
houses, lights begin to blink.
Sunday
half four, it's time for drinks.
Some
men go out to buy some chips
and
Buitenveldert hears the whizz
of
another landing plane.
The Dutch lyrics: http://muzikum.eu/nl/123-648-10488/frans-halsema/zondagmiddag-buitenveldert-songtekst.html
The song performed in Dutch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw43rA341Lk
