Senses and Desires Poem by Arjen Duinker

‘One wants, by the sea, the most beautiful things,
One wants, by the sea, the funniest things.

For the will, by the sea, is comparable
To nothing and completely naked.

Hahahah! The will is exactly
The same, by the sea, as the sea!

Perhaps I see a boat,
Perhaps a boat without a thing,

Perhaps a boat without a sound,
Perhaps…I'd love to see that boat

For a boat is comparable to one's will,
Look, the sea is coming closer, closer,

Even though water stays where it is.
A boat sails through ever changing water.

In search of romance, without a doubt,
In search of the beginnings of understanding,

In search of…I also see, over there in the distance,
Something resembling a bird, over there,

For the rest, the sea scarcely shows itself,
Perhaps that boat is coming closer.

One learns, from the sea, the most beautiful things,
One learns, from the sea, the funniest things,

I'd like to stay here till the evening falls.
Another wave and yet another, listen!

As if I hear men talk on that boat!
They'd be quarreling, over directions,

Over the size of their cocks, haha!
Or the sounds in the clouds.

Nothing is heard that's not imagined,
Dazzling lines without precision,

I want the sea to come closer.
I'm feeling cold and I'm feeling hot.

Thinking about the sea, the deep in the distance,
And about people who love the deep.

The thoughts are pressed together,
Love hovers about immeasurability

Like some courageous organism. I believe
The birds have little interest

In that boat over there in the distance,
I feel like going on board,

To wait until the birds arrive.
It's true I harbour the turmoil of my senses

But establish little feeling of that turmoil,
Overcome, perhaps, by the salty air.

No, chased by the wind, words are rolling
Over the skin, mirror themselves in the sea,

Here, give me your hand. The sea sings
A song we can only see,

Glistening fish, glistening desires,
Glistening desires make up glistening songs,

Glistening fish provide refreshment,
Oh look, that bird hangs a garland in the sky.

I want to wait here till the sea evaporates.
I want fantastic smelling men,

I want them to come to me and caress me,
The boat becoming larger and more transparent.

But that bird…So primeval, so harsh,
My desires no longer find their way out.

I close my eyes, meanwhile dreams, dreams
Of all the heavenly bodies playing hide-and-seek,

You do all know that a word is an object,
That the mouth must be reckoned as a sense made of silver

And that the boat sails in a reality different
From ours? I stand and look, I smell the radiance.

The sea, by the sea, yearns for me, all my girlfriends' eyes
Allowing sight of the waves in their inner selves,

I wonder which sounds make up the sound,
How much I can hear. Here, by the sea, each question

Is perhaps the one asked the most.

English translation by Jeltje Fanoy