Month: december 2017

Reading: The Unborn by Sharon Olds
Sharon Olds (b. 1942) is an American poet and a leading voice according to Poetry Foundation. She writes about the body and its pleasures and pains. She has won a Pulitzer prize (for Stag's Leap, 2013) and the British T.S. Eliot prize. She (or her work?) is widely anthologized, if that's the info you need. Today, I ...
Kerstwens
In haar beschouwelijke kerstboodschap schreef bevlogen collega-columnist en Roversdochter uit het Noorden Bronja Prazdny over je afkomst en je vader als inspiratiebron, en hoe gezwellen op het internet haar zulks kwalijk namen. Een persoonlijke thematiek, net als een persoonlijke schrijfstijl die gulziger is dan 4,9 woorden per zin, werd door de semi-alfabeten niet op prijs gesteld.
Reading: For The Anniversary Of My Death by W.S. Merwin
W.S. Merwin (b. 1927) is an American poet who became famous as an anti-war poet in the 1960s. He later developed an interest in buddism and deep ecology and moved to an old banana plantation on Maui, Hawai, which he restored to its original rainforest state. I read a timeless poem about celebrating the anniversary ...
Reading: Ships by Tomaž Šalamun
Tomaž Šalamun (1941-2014) was an adventurous, I think people say 'avant-garde' poet from Slovenia. I like what I see (or could we say: read) because it is mysterious and our world feels sometimes like mystery has been painted over. Here's 'ships' in a translation by Brian Henry: Ships I’m religious. As religious as the wind ...
"Poetry for me is not work but pleasure, not a career but a second life—a play within a play."- Peter Davison
Reading: Strange Fruit by Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) was a giant of Northern Irish poetry. He translated Beowulf into lively,  modern language. Heaney was an immensely popular ambassador of poetry. Today, I read 'Strange fruit' - what a muscular and earthly use of language: Strange Fruit Here is the girl's head like an exhumed gourd. Oval-faced, prune-skinned, prune-stones for teeth. ...
Vertaling: Auden’s That Night When Joy Began
Voor de illustere Vertaalwedstrijd van Facebook (editie 84) werd een poeem van Auden vertaald. Het origineel vindt u op het internet, en hier de Nederlandse benadering, die ik u niet onthouden wil: Blijmoedig was de nacht Blijmoedig was de nacht Dat we tot in onze haarvaten bloosden We wachtten op het geweerschot Dat zou gaan ...
To my child
today I stage a rebirth of my desire to see the world through your eyes if you see the flowers stare at you from their blushing fields you are like a sun to them so I invited myself to your dream and do you know mine about the thankfulness of a well, the divine right ...
Reading: Old Couple by Charles Simic
Charles Simic (b. 1938) is an American poet born in Servia. His early childhood during World War 2 informed some of his poetry, that is said to be haunting and agonizing, but replete with gallows humor. He also wrote a lot of poems about everyday objects, such as spoons, knives and forks. I found this ...