Marc Tritsmans The singing of the world Translated by John Irons   Yves T’Sjoen. "In Search of a Glimpse: On the Poetry of Marc Tritsmans". John Irons. "Pulse and Fluidity – On Translating the Poetry of Marc Tritsmans"   Cover artwork: "Sternenfall" (Falling Stars) (90 1/2 x 66 7/8 in - oil on canvas, 1995) by Anselm Kiefer   1 May 2026. 69 pp. ISBN 978-3-901993-86-2 (= Poetry Salzburg Translation Series 2) £12.00 (+ 3.00 p&p), €12.00 (+ 3.00 p&p), US$ 14.00 (+ 5.00 p&p)   This book is published with the support of Flanders Literature (flandersliterature.be).   "The optical dimension, the way the text is disposed on the page, is extremely important. The white is as important as the black – both when reading aloud and on the page. I would suggest doing both. Training the eye will help train the mind (and the heart) to hear his world sing." John Irons "Not only the stability of form the poems have or the functional mingling of linguistic and stylistic registers, but also the thematic cohesion is, as mentioned, typical of Tritsmans's poetry. The awareness of and lasting fascination with the insignificant, both the common and the elusive, run like an unbroken thread through the poems." Yves T’Sjoen

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Table of Contents

Excerpts from The singing of the world

The singing of the world

let this earth after our disappearance
slowly catch its breath once more
lick her deep and many wounds

the only thing that will be missed
is that we were the only ones who
came up with a name for her and

all visible conceivable things so that
after us all will have to go on existing
namelessly and unapprehended

and although all our dissonances
all our senseless and pointless din
will have dissolved into nothing

song thrush, nightingale and reed warbler
will once more strike up their lofty song
for ever there will also be lacking

what such magicians as Bach and
Beethoven had once so miraculously
added to the singing of this world
 

Spacetime

I can agree with you on the exact location
give you the correct gps north latitude and
east longitude, then we will find ourselves
within 7 metres at most from each other, here

for example, in this summer garden, it would
be impossible for us to miss each other
it is only the fourth dimension that
doesn’t let itself be lured

look at your agenda calendar, check your watch
but no, we will not find a single possible
moment, there is no location in time
that from now on is accessible to both of us
 

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