Levendaal, from the Kraaiers bridge near the Koene bridge
Over the last many months I have read many articles and commentaries on the sadness of loss that is a part of age. Yes, it is harsh. And yes, aging is a physical deterioration, but it is not immediately an intellectual deterioration into oblivion. Oblivion will arrive in its own good time. Old age is not a time for regret; it is a time for continuance, and exploration of what now has come.
“Along the Levendaal” occurs in the third part, “Cairns,” of Constellations of Desire. The seven poems of “Cairns” deal with understandings of the past as it relates to those who are no more or who have gone away or have been killed. The Levendaal is a street, once with a canal, or moat, in the downtown of Leiden, where I was born. I was on the Levendaal frequently as a child with my mother, as it was a site for markets. Originally dug in the 14th century, the canal was filled in in 1962. The poem was written in Vancouver in September of 2015.
I had intended to revisit Leiden and the Levendaal before the pandemic intervened, but my intention is merely postponed, not removed.
The Spanish translation of the poem, below, is by Eva Gallud, as published by Madrid and Toulouse’s Triadæ, at page 25.