One Art

Laat ons eerlijk zijn... "In her Shoes" is nu niet echt de meest lyrische film aller tijden, maar zulk simpel verteerbaar amusement helpt me om mijn postoperatieve 2 weken op een weinig inspannende manier om te krijgen (want, stilzitten - of beter: stilliggen - is niet echt aan mij besteed, maar het moet nu eenmaal... op doktersvoorschrift). In her shoes dus... Ik kwam ergens halverwege de film dit gedicht tegen:


One Art
by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.


--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.