Translations from Dutch

Uit vuur en ijzer (to be sung in Dutch)

From fire and iron, sour and salt
Wide and as ageless as the light
People are formed from all that is
And each day born again.
To be as iron in the fire
To be as salt and sweet and sour
To be someone for someone else
That's why we are all born.

Uit staat en stand

Ripped out of caste, social position, wisdom
Like a plane tree, toppled and uprooted
Then, it felt light moving beneath the bark
A wave of buds, waiting to break free

Fled far from 'you' and 'yours' and any words
Driven on somewhere, past the boundary line
Catching the breath in thin air
Hearing your own heart beating. Past restrictions.

From your own nature and body to another.
Inevitably. No more to be at home.
Till I find HIM and he finds me — what then?
A sea of dreams is flaming through my heart.

Nu nog met halve woorden

With halfly uttered words now,
Here and there
Into dark mirrors dimly gazing
Half aware, we remain strangers
Who look but do not remember
Acting without seeing and again forgetting
Then suddenly becoming something new
Our lives will open wide,
We'll see and listen, eye to eye
No room, no need to hide.

We'll set behind us
All pretence and fear
And love will be a garment,
Which we wear
Body and silence enough then
And our two names
Resting like lion and lamb,
Free and without chains
This word is hard
It comes and goes
And brings a death in you
Who dreams this song until its end
Two people, me and you.