Lloyd Haft

In 2003 Haft published his eighth volume of poetry Psalmen (Psalms), for which he received the Ida Gerhardt Prize in 2004. Ten years earlier he was awarded the Jan Campert Prize for his collection Atlantis (1993). Haft writes his poems in Dutch and English. He himself points to early twentieth-century American poetry, the Judaic-Christian scriptural and liturgical tradition and mysticism as important influences on his work. The Chinese poetry he has studied for so long also leaves its marks in Haft’s poems.

In the epilogue to his new versions of the psalms, Haft writes: “Yet we still write poems and still reflect upon (if we are so inclined) about god. Doing both things at the same time has long been out of fashion.” Haft’s being so inclined and his indifference to fashion were already apparent from his earlier collections.

In his prize-winning volume Psalmen he reversifies the original text of the Psalms in a very free manner, giving expression to a contemporary, strongly personal religiosity. ‘Seeing’ is of great importance here: “See how my eyes remain:/ open, always on you” (‘After Psalm 141’) or “see me into spaces/ of the one Who sees” (‘After Psalm 138’).

Apart from his own poetry, Haft has published many translations of poems, from English into Dutch, of modern American poets such as Wallace Stevens, Hart Crane, William Carlos Williams, and vice versa of Dutch poets such as Gerrit Kouwenaar, Miriam Van hee, Anna Enquist and H.H. ter Balkt. Bibliography

Poetry
Ikonen bij daglicht, Querido, Amsterdam, 1982
Brandende lisdodden, Querido AMsterdam, 1984
Slakkehuis en andere korte gedichten, Querido, Amsterdam, 1985
Wijl wij dansen, Querido, Amsterdam, 1987
Atlantis, Querido, Amsterdam, 1993
Anthropos, Querido, Amsterdam, 1996
Ken u in mijn klacht. Psalmbewerkingen, Querido, Amsterdam, 1998
De Psalmen in de bewerking van Lloyd Haft, Querido, Amsterdam, 2003
Formosa, Querido, Amsterdam, 2005
Deze poelen, deze geest, Querido, Amsterdam, 2008

Philosophy
Lao-tze's vele wegen, Synthese, Waarbeke, 2017

Academic Essays
Pien Chih-Lin (English), De Gruyter, Amsterdam, 1983