Welcome to Dutch poetry - March 2005

 
Tuesday 1 March 2005

In the undertow of this new March issue dreams and films drift along. The relationship between those two and a poem itself can be a tricky one. Of course a daydream or a movie can be a perfect source of inspiration for a poet. And in turn poems might inspire moviemakers, animators, readers and dreamers to create entirely new projects, thoughts or fantasies.

But in between there’s just one person with one single thing in mind: the poet, writing a new poem. Whatever images, films or dreams might have fed him, he must now focus on his words and use them as building blocks for the images of the new world he is constructing: the world of his poem. And as the Dutch poet Erik Lindner describes it, it is “a world of the images themselves, images that drag our mind to places we wouldn’t have reached by ourselves. Not without those images.”Erik Lindner is one of the two new Poets of the Quarter presented in this issue. He performed at the Poetry International Festival in 2002, on which occasion Paul Vincent made ten remarkable translations of his poetry. These translations are now finally available on Poetry International Web, along with a small essay containing up to date information on the poet, some links to related websites, and an illuminating review of Lindner’s latest collection Tafel (Table), by the Belgian critic Paul Demets.

The second Poet of the Quarter is Alfred Schaffer, one of the most exciting and successful representatives of the younger generation in Dutch poetry. Among the extras on his page is an animation film of his poem ‘Droom en werkelijkheid’ (Dream and reality); turn on your audioboxes to hear Schaffer recite the poem in Dutch (Quicktime is required). This film was made by independent animator Sander Alt, and is available with or without subtitles based on the English translation by John Irons.

While we leave you to enjoy the words and worlds of Schaffer and Lindner, we take a short peek ahead at the next edition of the Poetry International Festival, taking place in Rotterdam in just a few months, from June 18 until June 24. Our next issue will feature Dutch poets attending the festival!