Tarjei Vesaas
The Boats on the Sand
The boats on the sand have drawn together
as if in a council of elders.
They stick their snouts together
and are silent and understand
(most things),
as old boats do.
O, how long their bodies are.
Low and sleek on a beach.
Their wood is darkening
and they are quietly decaying.
Made for water,
and to be destroyed by water.
Even now they’re three-quarters in it.
What they don’t know about the wet
no one knows.
They haven’t settled anything
at their council.
All day they’ve lain there, motionless.
Boats in the home port they love.
Four of them on a stretch of sand.
Translated by Roger Greenwald
Page(s) 196
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