Het huis van de lege hart - © Frank Callery

Het huis van de lege hart

Some say a sigh will be lost in the winds Some say a tear makes a sea; The sigh or the tear is where sadness begins I know, for they came from me.

Some say a flower has less worth than a seed Some say the Earth is a mother Whose love and rich loam fulfils every need Of the child, of the sister, the brother.

Chorus But these do not bloom in the salt tears of pain And the desert would tear them apart — The flower, the seed, who need Earth, sun and rain Not the cold of the empty heart.

In the cold of the garret where brooding and fear And closed shutters blocked hope from the start And only the murmur of darkness was near In the house of the empty heart.

O walk in cathedral woods where they soar And filter the light as it falls No other abode will you need any more When the sigh to your full heart calls;

Chorus The blessing of silence or birdsong will rest On your moments, and grief will depart From the place that once shuttered the love in your breast In the house of the empty heart.

— © Frank Callery, April, 15th 2016.

(On listening to Sam Beckett reading from Watt “Of the empty heart” with Dutch subtitles “Van Het Lege Hart touched me and seemed as an old sad house).

• Het huis van de lege hart, Dutch for “The house of the empty heart”.