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)
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