Zondagmiddag Buitenveldert

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