Gedichten
Warning
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings and make up for the sobriety of my youth. I shall go out in my slippers in the rain and pick the flowers in other people's gardens and learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat And eat three pounds of sausages at a go Or only bread and pickle for a week And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes. But now we must have clothes that keep us dry And pay our rent and not swear in the street And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
Jenny Joseph
Vrije vertaling in het Nederlands van onbekende hand.
Waarschuwing Wanneer ik oud ben, ga ik paarse jurken kopen en zal daar ook een rode hoed bij doen dat staat me niet, maar ik zie mezelf al lopen en ik verspil mijn staatspensioen aan drank en handschoenen en knopen.
Op maffe muilen loop ik door de warenhuizen en graai baldadig, gratis monsters bij elkaar ik druk op bellen tot mijn oren suizen ik ratel met mijn stok langs stalen buizen en als ik moe word, zit ik op het trottoir.
Geen regels kunnen mij nog overbluffen ik reken af met mijn beschaafde jeugd ik ga op sloffen door de plassen plenzen ik jat bloemen uit de tuin van vreemde mensen opvallen wordt voor mij een deugd en ik ga ook proberen om te tuffen.
Ode van de hand van Exhalted Queen Mum Sue Ellen Cooper.
A poet put it very well. She said when she was older, She wouldn’t be so meek and mild. She threatened to get bolder. She’d put a red hat on her head, and purple on her shoulder. She’d make her life a warmer place, her golden years much golder. We read that poem, all of us, and grasped what she is saying. We do not need to sit and knit, although we all are graying. We think about what we can do. Our plans we have been laying. Instead of working all the time, we’ll be out somewhere playing. We take her colors to our hearts, and then we all go shopping For purples clothes and hats of red, with giant brims a-flopping. We’re tired of working all the time, and staying home and mopping. We order pies and chocolate fudge, and rich desserts with topping. We crown ourselves as duchesses and countesses and queens. We prove that playing dress-up isn’t just for Halloween. We drape ourselves in jewels, feathers, boas, and sateen. We see ourselves on television and in magazines. We laugh, we cry, we hug a lot. We keep each other strong. When one of us goes out for fun, the rest all go along. We gad about, we lunch and munch, in one big happy throng. We’ve found the place where we fit in, the place we all belong.
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