Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
Remco Campert has a similarity with my own family because his family was in the Dutch resistance as well, though he is very much older than me. But I really like his poetry because it was rebellious and against the tide of time.
Tell me about Remco Campert.
Remco Campert has a similarity with my own family because his family was in the Dutch resistance as well, though he is very much older than me. But I really like his poetry because it was rebellious and against the tide of time, and there is a poem that is translated into English – I can read a little bit of it so that you can hear the repetition of it and the rhythm.
Here now along the long deep water
that I thought that I thought that you always
that you always
here now along the long deep water
where behind the rushes behind the rushes the sun
that I thought that you always but always
that always your eyes your eyes and the breeze
your eyes and the breeze
always ruffling ruffling the water
etc.
That’s lovely. What a treat.
Well, it’s hard for me because it’s in English and I’m a Dutch poet. There is collection of my poems just published in English, called Yugoslav Requiem and it goes along with the novel, King of Tuzla.
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As a Dutch army captain Arnold was commanding officer of the unit that secured Tuzla airbase in Bosnia for incoming UN aid in 1994, a year before the overthrow of the enclave Srebrenica in the former Yugoslavia. His acclaimed debut novel, De koning van Tuzla (King of Tuzla), and his collection of poetry, Yugoslav Requiem, are now available in English. His new novel, Angel, will be available in English later this year.
