Madman’s Song (1)

Poem by Emile Verhaeren Period 19th century

The black toad on the white ground
Stares at me undeniably
With eyes larger than its head is large;
They are the eyes that were stolen from me
When my gazes went away,
One evening, when I turned my head.

My brother? — he is someone who lies,
With flour between his teeth;
It is he, legs and arms in a cross,
Who turns in the distance, over there,
Who turns in the wind,
On that wooden mill.

And This one, it is my cousin
Who was a priest and drank so much wine
That the sun turned red from it;
I learned that he lived in a hovel,
With dead people, in his wardrobes.

For we have for genitals
Two pebbles
And for money a sack of lice,
We, the three madmen,
Who marry, in the moonlight,
Three mad ladies, on the dune.

Emile Verhaeren

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/poem-madmans-song-1-emile-verhaeren/