Samenwerking/Working together for Liu Xiaobo

Job Degenaar, voorzitter van WIPC Nederland schrijft: Bijgaande foto van Kluun en Bettine Vriesekoop (zgn. 'bekende Nederlanders') werd in een Utrechtse boekhandel genomen. Ze krijgen daar een poster met het gedicht van Xiaobo in onze vertaling. Die poster is door Amnesty International Nederland en PEN Nederland tot stand gekomen.

De tekst van het gedicht staat  tevens op de  website van Amnesty Nederland. In België verscheen een mooi stuk van David van Reybroeck in de Standaard van vorige zaterdag met de zelfde vertaling van het gedicht.

Job Degenaar, President of WIPC Nederlands wrote: This picture of Kluun and Bettine Vriesekoop (Dutch celebrities) was taken in a bookshop in Utrecht. They receive a poster with the poem of Liu Xiaobo in our translation. The poster is a result of the cooperation of of Amnesty International Nederlands and PEN Nederlands. The text also can be found on the website of Amnesty Netherlands.

Essen-main library, Ruhrgebiet - © Foto: Wilfried Bienek

March 21 was world poetry day.
In the main library in Essen, Ruhrgebiet, Germany, unbeknown by us, they dressed a table with a choice of poetry. Look at the right hand top. There you find the first production of world internet books: Grenzland. The first book in the framework of Ruhrgebiet2010 Cultural Capital of Europe.The book you see will in the course of the year be published as part of the trilogy 'Flußschiffahrt' - Binnenvaart - Inland waterways- together with 'Kammergedanken' - Kamergedachten - Chamber thoughts - and Anti. From March 17 to 20 Hafenklänge - Havenklanken - Sounds of Harbour - was presented at the book fair in Leipzig. 

Carne vale

Golden shoes

and lace

on a bony knee

of aged Sundays

and pearl

around necks of

sagging flesh

waiting

in excitement

for the procession

of shared solitude

Behind the ardent rows

the beauties

pass

no need yet

for this wait

that brings out but

saints

Their time is to night

the fiesta of the flesh

forgotten the

Carne vale

of their mothers in the street

A carnival in Valencia... Brides walking to the sea

In one breath

Today Poetry day in Holland and Belgium, The book In einem Atemzug, In een adem, In one breath, wib, 2011, will be presented  during the eight honorable poetesses who will read to night in the old city center of Antwerp in the literary Café den Hopsack.

She will open with the cycle Life, accompanied  by Jean Demey. Both have worked together often with wonderful results.

Life

1

It doesn't let go of you     

even if sometimes

without a leash hoping for the best

you let it run away -

It attacks you

even if it wears

a constant muzzle:

a precaution

taken in a moment

when the clock declines

to regulate

the traffic of time -

It throws sand in your eyes

as foam on your lips

it stays behind

so that, in order to speak one word,

your anger first

has to be laid out

like a corpse

not yet decomposing

but inclined

to do so

without further notice

but the teeth-grinding

of light

on the threshold

of high shadow

wanting to devour everything -

Olivier Cousin on Klara

Although the Breton Language looses ten thousands of speakers every year, Breton poetry is alive and interesting. Olivier Cousin was representing them at our Small Festival of European Art of Poetry., last September. When he and Bart Stouten met it was as if two long lost brothers met and found each other. They obviously share a poetic sensitivity. So Bart had a wonderful program in The Garden of Eden on Klara with Olivier, read the dutch translations of Paul Gellings and interviewed Olivier about poetry in Breton and the regional poets. The music was wonderful and the program was sensitive and interesting.

Wat follows is poem with pars in Breton which will be published in Sounds of Harbor II

Au port du bout du monde

Au dernier bout de la terre

le port sourit au large

demi-cercle d’une blancheur ternie

evel bannieloù ouzh ar wern

Le port comprend toutes les vies

accepte toutes les devises

parle toutes les langues

Même s’il malmène toutes les grammaires

il conjugue tous les verbes

pas uniquement partir ou arriver

C’hoantoù mont kuit

o vont hag o tont

stag ouzh ma huñvreoù

evel bannieloù ouzh ar wern

Le port déploie le filet des rêves

au-delà des crachins et des brumes

oubliant tous les moutons sur la lande

 *

  In the harbor at land's end        

At the last parcel of land                                   

the harbor smiles at the open sea

half circle of a dulled white

evel bannieloù ouzh ar wern

The harbor comprehends all lives           

accepts all currencies                                   

speaks all languages

Even though it manhandles all grammars                       

it declines all verbs

not only to leave or to arrive

C’hoantoù mont kuit

o vont hag o tont

stag ouzh ma huñvreoù

evel bannieloù ouzh ar wern

The harbor unfolds the dream net

beyond drizzle and sea mist               

all sheep left behind on the moors

(Traduite en français, la strophe en breton pourrait se lire  :

Des envies de départ

vont et viennent

attachées à mes rêves

comme des drapeaux sur le mât)

Poets and friends

© sms:foto duisburg/rhein  

There are days that active friends keep one going. At four there was the presentation by Bert Bevers of his latest volume of poetry 'Andere taal'. 

Interesting medieval music and well read poetry was offered to the throngs of people who showed up to share this moment of joy. Here you see Bert signing a book for a friend and thinking/writing down a fitting dedication. His poetry always has an air of history, observations of works of art and daily life. There is gentle steadiness in his way offering tranquility and reflection. Quite a gift to the readers.

Vera Alexander Beerten had her presentation in the evening in Gallery The black Panther . Here you see her listening to Professor emeritus Joris Gerits who gave a deep analysis of her third volume of poetry. She read well and the chill that was in the winter air installed itself between the shoulder blades with all the brilliant poems about loss of close friends and her mother. In 'Slechts kwade wind' you're going to discover images and heaviness for the soul which probably will console people going through the same feelings yet don't know how to express them.