My awkward attempt at translating the lyrics: “Beautiful Oh well, see, the lambs are still slurping from their freshly shaven mothers And see how the young swans swim down in the soft ditch And how the balmy wind blows the clouds into recently aired skies Can a thing be more beautiful than its beauty? Can…
Tag: The Netherlands
Maarten van Roozendaal
Maarten van Roozendaal (3 mei 1962 – 1 juli 2013), was a Dutch singer-songwriter. Van Roozendaal was born into a family of six in the small town of Heiloo, and got involved with music from early childhood on. After a troubled puberty, and a rebellious adolescence among the anarchist scene in Amsterdam, he finally started…
Migrating from one waiting room to another
“Human rights Having faith is lazy and coward. Lazy for assuming a story to be true without wanting to test it. Coward because one discards the doubt that is inherent to curiosity”, says Richard Dawkins, in an interview with Martijn van Calmthout in last Saturday’s Volkskrant. Laziness and cowardice should be basic human rights. True…
Arnon Grunberg
Arnon Grunberg (February 22, 1971) is a Dutch writer. He was born in Amsterdam to Jewish parents who emigrated from Germany after the war. When he was 17 years old, Arnon dropped out of high school, and, after a failed acting career, he made his writing debut at 24 years old with “Blue Mondays”. He…
it was clear as a streetcar: I am a flower
“Triumph of Love II – by Belcampo When the wind blew over the village, it also blew across the impenetrable woods, and the castle within, which was where the count lived. Only the sides and tops of the forest would sway back and forth, as well as the white signs around saying Couples caught caressing…
Belcampo
Belcampo (pseudonym of Herman Pieter Schönfeld Wichers, 21 Juli 1902 – 2 January 1990) is a Dutch writer. In 1933, after completing his studies in notarial law, he decided to wander to Italy, drawing portraits on the way for subsistence. After returning, he published the resulting travelogue and enrolled as a student of medicine. From…
I am an ocean of waiting
Ebb by M. Vasalis I withdraw and wait. This is the time that won’t go amiss: Every minute turns itself into future. I am an ocean of waiting, enveloped in a water film by the instant. Drawing ebb of the mind, Which pulls the minutes and, deep in its darkness, prepares the high tide. There…
M. Vasalis
M. Vasalis (pseudonym of Margaretha Droogleever Fortuyn-Leenmans, 13 February 1909– 16 October 1998) was a Dutch poet and psychiatrist. She studied medicine and anthropology at Leiden University. Poems Ebb (tr. Juliana Brina) Books 1940 – Onweer, in Drie Novellen, met J. Campert en E. Eewijck 1940 – Parken en woestijnen 1945 – Fragmenten uit een journaal,…
With my difficult eyes
Dear Judith, I came to you through my husband, who is a huge fan of your poetry. Some of the first Dutch poems we translated together were yours (I may post some of them here eventually, if you want). Soon afterwards, he gave me a collection of your early poems, translated into English by Shirley Kaufman. But…
Judith Herzberg
Judith Frieda Lina Herzberg (born November 4, 1934 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch Jewish poet. She lives alternately in the Netherlands and Israel. She writes poems and plays. Her plays Leedvermaak and Rijgdraad were made into movies by Frans Weisz. Poems Reunion (tr. Shirley Kaufman and Judith Herzberg) Works Translated Poems in English But What: Selected Poems. Introduction by…
