Article
Editorial: March 2004
January 18, 2006
you are here, in the empty circle
encircled, red and carmine circle
image of hypotheses projected
in the calculated point of sphere, here
on the unreadable surface of place
{id="4035" title="Rutger Kopland"} is one of the most popular poets of the Netherlands, also having gained wide recognition abroad in the last few years. “A Kopland poem is instantly recognizable as a Kopland poem. It is international, Dutch and English at the same time,” writes his translator James Brockway in his {id="3980" title="introduction to Kopland’s work"}. Still, the setting and atmosphere of these gentle poems, musing on happiness and the transience of it all, are quintessentially, undeniably Dutch, with their references to cows, meadows, Rembrandt, psalms and legendary Dutch footballer Abe Lenstra. In addition to the poems selected for you by our Dutch editor, we also present you eleven Kopland poems from our Festival archive.
Our three South-African poets, once again, demonstrate that there is no one vision of the country. From poet, professor and essayist {id="5379" title="Keorapetse Kgositsile"}, a long-standing ANC-member, we get the Pan-African point of view, in lines like
We are root of baobab
Flesh of this soil
Blood of Congo brush elegant
As breast of dark cloud
{id="5384" title="Patrick Cullinan"}, on the other hand, was awarded the title of ‘Cavaliere’ by the Italian government last year for his translations of Eugenio Montale, and shows more Italian influences, as in {id="5487" title="The House on the Frontier"} and {id="5481" title="Etruscan Girl"}.
Then, the poetry of {id="5377" title="Isobel Dixon"} is suffused with images from the Karoo. An “old enamel tub, age-stained and pocked/ upon its griffin claws”, in which the family bathed in times of drought, Protea flowers (“hard-hearted,/ stiffly-ranged, supremely practical,/ the nationalists’ tough bloom”), the scorching heat at Christmas. She write wistfully about her African mosquito bumps fading in the UK, adding the damning verdict
If anything is dark,
it’s this damp island
with its sluggish days,
its quieter, subtler ways
of drawing blood.
Finally, the first poet from Taiwan published in our Chinese section, {id="966" title="Chen Kehua"}, brings along a universe of his own. As our Chinese editor explains in his introduction, poetry from Taiwan retains stronger links with Chinese poetic traditions and Buddhist influences than the poetry of the mainland, leaving room for more continuity as well as experimentation. Kehua, a well-known activist for gay rights, constantly challenges our idea of normality, social existence, and the ideals of consumer society. Strongly influenced by Buddhist thought, he questions the very idea of the self, ultimately rendering all concerns of place and belonging irrelevant:
but suddenly I clean forgot the full story
including the fact that I too was originally
once a universe
A strong sense of place is what we get from each of our new poets this month. Coming from South Africa, France, the Netherlands and Taiwan, these poets could not be more different in their background and outlook, yet all carry their idea of home, of belonging or not belonging, known or unknown territory, into their poetry. Ironically, and defying all chauvinist preconceptions, our new French poet of the quarter introduces us to the topography of Berlin.
{id="2044" title="Michèle Métail"}, who has been a member of Oulipo since 1975, takes us to Berlin in {id="2140" title="Maze – you are here"}, part of a longer work called Toponyme: Berlin. The poem keeps referring to the Zen-like red circle which figures on all the maps in Berlin: you are here, in the empty circle
encircled, red and carmine circle
image of hypotheses projected
in the calculated point of sphere, here
on the unreadable surface of place
{id="4035" title="Rutger Kopland"} is one of the most popular poets of the Netherlands, also having gained wide recognition abroad in the last few years. “A Kopland poem is instantly recognizable as a Kopland poem. It is international, Dutch and English at the same time,” writes his translator James Brockway in his {id="3980" title="introduction to Kopland’s work"}. Still, the setting and atmosphere of these gentle poems, musing on happiness and the transience of it all, are quintessentially, undeniably Dutch, with their references to cows, meadows, Rembrandt, psalms and legendary Dutch footballer Abe Lenstra. In addition to the poems selected for you by our Dutch editor, we also present you eleven Kopland poems from our Festival archive.
Our three South-African poets, once again, demonstrate that there is no one vision of the country. From poet, professor and essayist {id="5379" title="Keorapetse Kgositsile"}, a long-standing ANC-member, we get the Pan-African point of view, in lines like
We are root of baobab
Flesh of this soil
Blood of Congo brush elegant
As breast of dark cloud
{id="5384" title="Patrick Cullinan"}, on the other hand, was awarded the title of ‘Cavaliere’ by the Italian government last year for his translations of Eugenio Montale, and shows more Italian influences, as in {id="5487" title="The House on the Frontier"} and {id="5481" title="Etruscan Girl"}.
Then, the poetry of {id="5377" title="Isobel Dixon"} is suffused with images from the Karoo. An “old enamel tub, age-stained and pocked/ upon its griffin claws”, in which the family bathed in times of drought, Protea flowers (“hard-hearted,/ stiffly-ranged, supremely practical,/ the nationalists’ tough bloom”), the scorching heat at Christmas. She write wistfully about her African mosquito bumps fading in the UK, adding the damning verdict
If anything is dark,
it’s this damp island
with its sluggish days,
its quieter, subtler ways
of drawing blood.
Finally, the first poet from Taiwan published in our Chinese section, {id="966" title="Chen Kehua"}, brings along a universe of his own. As our Chinese editor explains in his introduction, poetry from Taiwan retains stronger links with Chinese poetic traditions and Buddhist influences than the poetry of the mainland, leaving room for more continuity as well as experimentation. Kehua, a well-known activist for gay rights, constantly challenges our idea of normality, social existence, and the ideals of consumer society. Strongly influenced by Buddhist thought, he questions the very idea of the self, ultimately rendering all concerns of place and belonging irrelevant:
but suddenly I clean forgot the full story
including the fact that I too was originally
once a universe
© Corine Vloet
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