Foto: R. Amesz

donderdag 30 mei 2013

THE PAST on blog THE LOW COUNTRIES



Dutch poet Hans van de Waarsenburg published in English


Dutch poet Hans van de Waarsenburg published in English
A selection of poems by Dutch poet Hans van de Waarsenburg has been published in English. The small London-based poetry publisher Eyewear Publishing has brought out a volume titled The Past is Never Dead containing a selection of 170 poems translated by Peter Boreas.
Born in Helmond in 1943, Hans van de Waarsenburg published his first collection of poems, titled simply Gedichten (Poems), in 1965. He founded the Maastricht International Poetry Nights in 1998, a biennial festival which has brought distinguished international poets to Maastricht, including Seamus Heaney and Les Murray.

THE PAST op DE CONTRABAS


Hans van de Waarsenburg - The past is never dead

WaarsenburgHans van de Waarsenburg werkt in stilte aan een groot oeuvre. Een keuze uit dat oeuvre, bijna 170 gedichten groot, is nu vertaald in het Engels (door Peter Boreas) en uitgegeven door Eyewear Publishing, onder de titelThe past is never dead. In 2009 verscheen al een Duitse bloemlezing uit zijn werk bij Verlag Ralf Liebe. De vertalingen in het Duits waren van Marinus Pütz. Dat betekent dat een groot deel van zijn werk nu beschikbaar is in twee grote Europese talen. Op dit moment zijn er maar weinig Nederlandse dichters die hem dit na kunnen zeggen.
In het Engels klinkt het zo: Hans van de Waarsenburg (1943) published his first collection of poems, entitled Gedichten (Poems) in 1965. His collectionDe vergrijzing (The Graying) was awarded the prestigious Jan Campert Prize for Poetry in 1973. In March 2004 he received the first Municipal Award of the Helmond Town Council for his entire work. He is the founder of The Maastricht International Poetry Nights –a biennial international poetry manifestation– and was its President from 1997 until 2013. He is 70 this year.

DE CONTRABAS

zondag 26 mei 2013

DIE ONAFGEHANDELDE DINGE VAN GISTER ...


DANSENDE DIGTERSFEES. DIE ONAFGEHANDELDE DINGE VAN GISTER


Uiteindelik is die Dansende Digtersfees op hande en hier op die nippertjie ontvang ons een van die mees indrukwekkende publikasies wat met die oog op dié fees bestel is: die Nederlandse digter Hans van de Waarsenburg se eerste publikasie in Engels, The Past is Never Dead; vars van die pers af en pragtig uitgegee (in hardeband, nogal!) deur Eyewear Publishing. (Die boek het einde April in Engeland verskyn met die gedigte wat deur Peter Boreas vertaal is.)
En ek moet erken dat na ek my die afgelope weke verlees het aan die ietwat vervreemdende poësie van veral Ko Un en Yang Lian, was die ontdekking van Van de Waarsenburg se gedigte kalmerend soos ‘n bord ertesop op ‘n reënerige wintersaand.
Nog ‘n heerlike ontdekking was die uitgewer, Todd Swift, se Eyewear Blog vir die digkuns. In sy inskrywing oor Hans van de Waarsenburg vertel Swift van sy eerste ontmoeting met dié “larger-than-life”-digter: “In 1997 he (HvdW) became chairman of The Maastricht International Poetry Nights – an impressive biannual international poetry festival that was held for the seventh time in October 2010.  It was there that I first met this larger-than-life figure, a charismatic, fun, gregarious figure, whose love of poetry and poets radiates from his very being.  Since the 70s he has gone on to publish many books, from presses as far afield as Mexico.  He’s a Dutch poet well worth getting to know, in translation if needs be.  I find his witty, lyric, sometimes melancholy, poems, of love and artfulness very moving, and sympathetic to my own aims and feelings.”

Hans van de Waarsenburg
Hans Groenewegen is nog iemand wat die lof van dié digter besing; aldus die flapteks: “Hans van de Waarsenburg is quietly working on an impressive oeuvre. He possesses great technical skills, which he uses to vary and intensify his standard themes and motifs. He is no innovator, nor does he slavishly follow the latest fads. Neither is he a poet who forces himself on our attention in that loud entourage which more and more replaces literature itself. Loyalty is the key to Van de Waarsenburg’s work. His poetry expresses a loyalty to the people around him, loyalty to their motives and desires. He has an eye for their vulnerability, their futility and their restrictions. It is first of all expressed in the earnest and careful way in which he uses language. Thus a careful listener hears an individual and unmistakable voice rising from the poetry.”  — Hans Groenewegen.
En nou blyk dit dat Van de Waarsenburg nié die Dansende Digtersfees gaan kan bywoon nie … Wat ‘n jammerte! Ten minste het ons darem sy lieflike verse om te kan geniet, of hoe?
By wyse van illustrasie plaas ek graag een van sy gedigte hieronder. Die boekbesonderhede is soos volg:
ISBN 9781908998095, hardeband, 181 ble., Eyewear Publishing)

***

The Last Waltz

Had I forgotten you in stereo sound?
Dolby, Dolby, in that square in Amsterdam?
The Schiller Hotel, floating on the past
Like a cabin cruiser. I was asked to show

My singing diploma, paint my
Masterpiece – you would not take less,
Madame, and touch down in Brussels.
As if streets were flown in from Rome

With me painting clowns’ faces on
Non-existent covers. For a moment I
Was in Venice with you, sailing in ‘a dirty
Gondola’ to the dead of yesteryear.

***

When Time proved an impertinence. We
Drank prosecco to this tender reunion and
Later dreamt of frayed ends hanging like
Wisps of hair over the celluloid.

Sound full of noise and scratches. But whenever
Your tongue waltzes in my ear and the first bars
Sound once again, the old dance resumes,
Madame, and everything spins as of old.


© Hans van d Waarsenburg (Vertaling deur Peter Boreas)


Uit de catalogus van Eyewear Publishing!