Sea Poem by Gaston Karel Mathilde Burssens

The sea here's the sea
It was born in the Year of Our Lord
Nought more or less and nought it's remained
The Great Nought it's remained
Through all the ages faith has sustained
In nought is nought and one plus one is two

The sea here's the sea
That was born nought and nought has stayed
But daft and meek as can be
Nothing like the descriptions they've made
The nothing that they say is infinite
And nothing's infinite that's not finite

Here's the sea and it's here
Made just of salt seaweed and water clear
Of crabs, jellyfish, prawns and plaice
But not of mermaids and coral lace
Perhaps - though there's no proof - of sardines too
And not of sharks and dolphins, that's not true

And dogs horses cows lions and sirens
That's right sirens they say with one eye bright
In all the shades of the rainbow's light
And pigs - with scales like gleaming rosy irons -
And cats - well did you ever
Hey Kees have you ever seen cats in the sea

Oh yes oh yes but on the silver screen
But there alas things are all much nicer
Yellow and blue-painted parrots we can discern
That make our faith and hope less keen
Whose images just turn and turn
In the prism of a telescope seen

Oh let's to the swell our attention bend
This swell that is not eternal
But as a feature seems to have no end
Ending and starting, annoying, infernal
And begins and ends again, deceiving
Ending beginning in coming and leaving

When we go it starts - when we come it all seems
To end in wondrous visions and dreams
Alas there aren't parrots in the sea
Let's go out in a boat
On the waves afloat
All gilt-edged or silvery

In the wind let us yacht
While it's playful as a tot
Since it's like a ripe matron with senses astorm
Who'll teach her young lover to perform
And play the game of love with skill
That wallow in joy and ill

And when the game is quite played out
And all at rest is curled
It dives into its silent world
Into this waterscape see it spout
From green to grey lukewarm to leaden heat
Shallow perhaps no ground beneath your feet

See it spout in this water glass
In which it has poured a storm
Its sails dance and its lights spark and swarm
Its one horizon that was more than one
It was called eternal back then
And was worshipped and cursed by men

When it was ours and the fishermen's sea
And the fishes' the secrets most rare
And where's content for such guessers as we
If not in guessing with a Lord's Prayer
Or with a curse o mirror surface of rage
Like when a storm of lust kept our calm safe in its cage

It was the time when we thoughtless ones
Told our loves many wondrous tales
Of all those stars and all those suns
Whose gleam slid down the swell's long tails
It's good to tell your love stories again
Of those wonders on the main

The wonder of the sea rabbits white
And of the sardines all gleaming so bright
Which it's a shame to can and price
Of the blood like ice
- She smiles at you in disbelief -
Of tempting sirens on the reef

And of much much more and more
What lies we would sweetly tell
When we let ourselves rock in the swell
Of mad reasoning more and more
That at high tide and low came back and went
Till all lust was spent

It was a time of youth not begun
Of thoughtless wisdom indeed
When each grey-haired young one
Tossed as jellyfish feed
virtuous grey ones, watching them fall
Not just we few but all

Then we stroked a wave of blond hair
Now we massage a body waving free
Till it's rocked on the waves there
And rises and rises out to sea
And slips into the wondrous wet environs
And becomes one of the sirens

And come and be lured
Beyond your sobriety
To the dark side of your security
The warmth of her locks allured
As it was once in the past
The slow arc of a sea plant's mast

Thus it was born to us from every image freed
Stripped of every word we knew
The image though is so pure indeed
But brittle as glass is too
For once we found a conch on the beach before
In which we could hear it was something more