The Old Woman

Poem by Emile Verhaeren Period 19th century

Like hands
Cut off,
The leaves fall on the paths,
The meadows and the copses.

The old woman in her cotton cloak,
Hood pulled low down to her chin,
With little hops, upon a stick,
Trails her walk through the fields.

Moles, mice, field mice and rats
Trot and scurry after her steps.
The trunks and thickets speak to one another;
And the birds: herons, grebes and mergansers,
Make like a battle of wings
And signs, before her.

Did anyone ever know from what lands she came?
The traveling players who came from elsewhere
One Sunday, on the roads, recognized her.
Did she love the golden Nixes? Perhaps.
But nothing is certain, except that in distant times, a priest
Exorcised her hands that struck down the flowers.

Since then, she has chosen her retreat and her lot,
On a hillside overlooking the plains,
From where everyone knows she watches the enclosures,
Through her window with dusty panes,
In the evening, all the while mingling the skeins
Of her kindnesses or her hatreds.

Her poor roof, over there, seems a crushed bird,
Against the dunes by some savage wind,
And that digs into the sand, with all the rage
Of its claws and its folded wings.
The leaves fall on the paths
Immensely soaked with mists,
Like hands
Cut off.

Whether she is loved or loathed, she goes
Her pace set to destiny
She is mystery or certainty,
According to her vague attitudes
Before joy or torment;
Those who see clearly, among unknown things,
Explain to you how
She would be the soul of the countryside.

Soul of stubbornness and melancholy,
That leans toward lost secrets
And gazes at itself, in the cracked mirrors
Of old abolished things.
Soul of smoky evening or misty morning,
Soul of sly love or cunning hatred
That going toward good, that going toward evil,
Always goes there as if marauding.

The leaves fall on the paths,
Immensely soaked with mists,
Like hands
Cut off.

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-the-old-woman-emile-verhaeren/