translated by Arno Bohlmeijer

Will anyone hear that in April the thyme would bloom? 
It went on for months. Does anyone take an interest? 

Tiny lilac flowers winged from the green, from the seeds 
that I spilled in the sand so carefully one day. 

Nobody wants to hear. So I’m not saying it, although 
the thyme keeps blooming, even if no one cares. 

Let it flower for me only then. I will whisper it then. 
Someone may read the quiet words and send a letter: 

When I read that the thyme bloomed in April, while 
the chives bloom lilac here in May, I knew you are the true one. 

As a poet, novelist, artist, screenwriter, graphic designer and song-text writer, Ted van Lieshout is an international phenomenon. So far, he’s published 90 books and won 20 major prizes. There is no end to the variety of his themes and styles, from utterly playful to dead serious – or all at the same time: as funny as profound.  

Arno Bohlmeijer is the winner of a PEN America Grant 2021, a poet and novelist, writing in English and Dutch, published in six countries, and in Universal Oneness: an Anthology of Magnum Opus Poems from around the World, 2019.