als er geen flash is
Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost. Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say, what was this forest savage, rough, and stern, which in the very thought renews the fear. So bitter is it, death is little more.
The wood was consecrated by the auguries of their forefathers, and by immemorial shivers it instills. I don’t know whether it’s true that, as they tend to say, repetition is nice. I just know it means something.
So again they went, and came to where now Vlaerdinge stands, and yonder settled for there was water there, and built a large castle that they named Slaveburgh: and next to the Slaveburgh there was that grand wood, that for many a year was called that wild forest without mercy. And these were the very first beginnings of Holland: as one will hear hereafter.
No one enters the wood except bound with a chain, as an inferior acknowledging the might of the divinity. If one chances to fall, it is not lawful for him to be lifted up, or to rise to his feet; he must crawl out along the ground.
So then after a long time they would again get together with the Slaves, the Frisians and the Wild ones, with all too many a warrior, and travel to Austria, which was then called Brabant, and to France, and win all too big a battle, and bring all too big a booty back to their houses, and win them a big booty, and win them a big battle, and keep al their sheep and retain a big booty and they would not be in peace if they would live peacefully. They did not desire peace nor leave any man in peace. So the cruel Slaves let no man in peace and for aye looted the lands and the waters, wherever they would encounter living men. Those cruel Slaves that now are the Dutch.
If one chances to fall, it is not lawful for him to be lifted up, or to rise to his feet; he must crawl out along the ground. So savage it was, so rough and stern. I don’t believe in the distinction between they that know and they that speak.
After the birth of our Lord two and forty years went the Emperor Claudius with his retinue into that great forest, there he heard the great horrible sounds of the wild animals that were in that forest, of bears, of lions, of hogs, of wild bulls that so horribly gesticulated that any man would be horrified. Then the Emperor did ask lives there no man in this wood. They said, no Lord, for therein are so many wild beasts, that thu could not pass through even with all the people thu hast with the. Then the Emperor did ask again is it grand and large. They said again that in all it was ten miles long and three miles wide. The Emperor did ask again, does there live no man at the other side of the wood. They said, yes Lord, there live the wild Low Saxons, who don’t care for any man who walks the earth. And even when it would be that thu hast the adventure of passing through the forest with all your folk, you would at once be fought by these people. Then the Emperor said, this wood will be known as that wild forest without mercy: for how it goes, there no man will leave with his body unscathed. And from this time on the wood was known as that wild wood without mercy. These Slaves were also very rough like wild folk, and were very strong in the body, and they also did not spare any man.
As if the one has a ‘calling’, and the other a ‘freedom’. You obscure the actual differences between their respective positions. I have heard strange rumours of the wild wood, of robbers who shun the daylight, of savage hunters and men dressed in green. I heard the great horrible sounds of the wild animals that were in that forest, of bears, of lions, of hogs, of wild bulls that so horribly gesticulated that any man would be horrified. I want to fully embody the contradictions of my time.
So then after a long time they would again get together with the Slaves, the Frisians and the Wild ones, with all too many a warrior, and travel to Austria, which was then called Brabant, and to France, and win all too big a battle, and bring all too big a booty back to their houses, and win them a big booty, and win them a big battle, and keep al their sheep and retain a big booty and they would not be in peace if they would live peacefully. They did not desire peace nor leave any man in peace. So the cruel Slaves let no man in peace and for aye looted the lands and the waters, wherever they would encounter living men. Those cruel Slaves that now are the Dutch.
So savage it was, so rough and stern, that the very thought renews the fear. So bitter it was, death is little more. I have heard strange rumours of the wild wood, of robbers who shun the daylight, of savage hunters and men dressed in green. I heard the great horrible sounds of the wild animals that were in that forest, of bears, of lions, of hogs, of wild bulls that so horribly gesticulated that any man would be horrified. No one enters the wood except bound with a chain. I don’t know whether, as they tend to say, repetition is nice. I just know it means something. And if there's something I've searched for in all this, it’s signification. I don’t know whether repetition is nice.
(LOOP)