De vluchteling
Willem Vermandere
The Refugee
If I ever have to leave my home
It would be terribly lamentable
if the storm were to crack my walls
and I were driven from home and land
or simply driven away by people
from the fortress I built myself
doomed to be jeered at for the rest of my life
like a thief
Imagine if everything were taken from me here
my table, my stove, my bed
that I could never enter here again
that I was deprived of all my rights
banished from my wife and children
even my books burned on the ground
if devils were to conspire here together
even robbed of the word from my mouth
What would be left of me then
of that wanderer without a roof
of that beggar, meager and poor
a sunken, drowned wreck
what would I be without my instruments
I would be a bird without a song
without all my stories
oh, I would die of sorrow
If I ever have to leave my village
driven away from my home and land
if a storm were to crack my walls
it would be terribly lamentable
