Het heksenuur, mijn zusters/The Witching Hour, My Sisters, by Kate Copeland (Dutch, English)

The Silver River in the Night Sky, photography by Matthew Wu (Australia) 2014 matthewwu88, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Editor's note: This poem was written, in Dutch and then English, to the work Yanjirlpirri or Napaljarri - Warnu Jukurrpa (Star or Seven Sisters Dreaming), by Alma Nungarrayi Granites (Australia) 2012. Please click here to view it, and to learn more about the mythology behind it. The image above is a placeholder as we did not have the rights to publish the painting.

**

Het heksenuur, mijn zusters 

Ze wandelt wat rond, hoofd laag, ogen straf op 't stof.
Het zand is rood rondom. Ze is gewoonlijk zo,

zo is ze, zelfs eerder - in straten, strand, hemel, haven.

Noem haar verlegen, hoog hartig, een regen-heid die ze niet 
wenst te plaatsen zelf, niet ontkomen kan. Kan ze wel?

Noem haar ontdekker, half-waar maar als haar hart, dan zij,
regelrecht rond de woestijn, nagels vol aard. Ze wandelt waar

glimmers en glimt, straalt, ziet het vuur in sterren spektakelen,
ziet een expo van natuur de nacht wegblazen, vandaag,

gedurende het heksenuur. Ogen strak op de kluis,
haar zusters om veilig te zijn. Zo is ze wel, gewoonlijk.

**

The Witching Hour, My Sisters

She walks a-round, head down, eyes set to dust.
Sand is red around. She is her usual she,

she is her, even before - on streets, beach, heaven, haven.

Call her timid, call her haughty, a rain-ness she will
not place herself, cannot haste from. Can she?

Call her explorer, call her half-true, but when her heart, so she,
right down the desert, dirt under nails. She walks where the

glimmers and gleams, beams, sees the blaze in stellar spectacles, 
sees nature's expo airing the night away, today, 

in the witching hour. Eyes set on the vault, 
her sisters to feel safe. She is her, usually.

Kate Copeland

Kate Copeland started absorbing stories ever since a little lass. Her love for words led her to teaching and translating some sweet languages, her love for art, lyrics and water led her to poetry ...with some publications sealed already! She was born in Rotterdam some 51 ages ago and adores housesitting in the UK, America and Spain.