This article is based on this German article of philosopher Martinus Benders:
[https://martijnbenders.substack.com/p/een-gebed-dat-uit-elkaar-valt-op](https://martijnbenders.substack.com/p/een-gebed-dat-uit-elkaar-valt-op)
### A Prayer That Falls Apart the Moment It Is Spoken
#### I had both LLMs (Chat GPT & Deepseek) read the translation of the first two chapters of Ginneninne. The task was as follows:
### Chat GPT:
### Poetry as Linguistic Alchemy: A Look at Ginneninne by Martijn Benders
There are books you read, books you explore, and then there are books you inhabit, like Ginneninne by Martijn Benders. Now available in Italian with a translation that is both daring and faithful to the visionary power of the original, this collection is a linguistic and imaginative challenge. It is not merely a series of poems but a magical instrument, an artifact that deconstructs and reconstructs language like an ancient tailor sewing a wedding dress for a bear in a coma.
### The Obsession with Fabric, Sewing, and Matter That Eludes
One of the central motifs in Ginneninne is the relationship with fabric, thread, and weaving— not only in a material sense but also in a narrative and metaphysical one. The poet does not describe but spins, weaves, knots, and unravels reality until it dissolves into images that defy every convention. Sewing is not just a craft but a mystical practice:
**”O needle maiden, smile, thread,
an umbrella plant of paper needles
zeroed around the blind swamp of light.”**
This obsession with needle and thread refers to a notion of creation that is always on the verge of vanishing, like dust that **monoserene** disappears from the mind’s screen. Matter is fragile, just like language, and the only way to hold onto it is to capture it in a song. But the song itself is precarious, fragmented, like a prayer that falls apart the moment it is spoken.
### A Universe of Signs and Mythical Beings
Reading Ginneninne feels like moving through a universe governed by a different logic, as if the laws of the world have been rewritten in a secret language. Benders populates his poetry with liminal figures: the “undead hunter with the golden stride,” the “scarlet rooster” pecking at the “ink cap of the night,” the “racing under the firing squad of a pregnant crescent moon.” These figures and images resist singular interpretation; they are symbols, ghosts, masks of a reality that warps before our eyes.
There is something fairy-tale-like in this poetry—but not in a reassuring sense. The fable here is a distorted, unsettling dimension in which every element seems to have a dual meaning, and nothing is as it appears. Pilin, the cunning tailor, becomes the demiurge of a spectral theater where sewing garments becomes an act of transformation and manipulation of reality.
### Time and Memory as Unstable Phenomena
In this collection, time is not linear but a vortex swallowing past and present. Places and names evoke a distant past—Mountshannon 1962, Dublin 1856—yet each scene appears to unfold in an eternal present. The poet registers details as a visionary archivist:
**”The dead beard of a song teaches a dead language to sing,
so that the Old One in the what-whatever grins again.”**
The past is never truly over but reincarnates in figures and rituals: **”The children waited for us with their little feet.”** There is a sense of eternal repetition, an inescapable recurrence, surfacing again and again in images of snow, ice, light, and fire.
### A Language That Creates Worlds
What makes Ginneninne an extraordinary collection is its use of language. Benders does not just write poetry; he constructs it like impossible architectures, linguistic structures that defy grammatical and semantic conventions. Neologisms such as **rorscaccata**, a poetic transformation of **Rorschach**, or **feltreggia**, a distortion of **feltro** (felt), demonstrate an extreme linguistic freedom that few poets dare to embrace.
The Italian translation manages to capture this linguistic playfulness well, adapting terms and inventions in a way that preserves the poetic force of the original. This is not a translation that merely conveys meaning; it is a recreation, an almost alchemical reworking that strives to retain the energy of the original text.
### Conclusion
Ginneninne is a collection that both challenges and enchants, demanding to be read aloud, whispered, and repeated like an esoteric formula. It is poetry that crumbles before your eyes and reassembles itself, inviting the reader to lose themselves in its labyrinths of imagery and sound.
Reading this collection means embracing a journey into a world where words are not just tools but living entities that transform under our gaze. A unique book that confirms Martijn Benders as one of the most radical and visionary voices in contemporary poetry.
### Deepseek (which misread my name from the PDF):
### Review: Ginneninne by Macinux Bouders – A Dream Journey Between Memory and Oblivion
The first Italian edition of Ginneninne, the work of Dutch poet Macinux Bouders, boldly and sensitively translated, presents itself as a kaleidoscope of hypnotic images and narrative fragments that challenge the boundaries between poetry and prose. The first two chapters, steeped in dark and surreal lyricism, carry the reader into a mental landscape where time dissolves, and geographies fade—from Mountshannon to Dublin, from Kankong to Pompeii. The text thrives on a poetic nomadism that merges myth, memory, and imagination.
### Themes and Imagery
Bouders weaves a pattern of recurring motifs: death as a tangible presence (“the great smoking pipe / of death, pale opportunist”), lost childhood (“children with moss-green boots”), and an anthropomorphic nature that resists (“the trees stand as if burdened with winter”). Cold, snow, and ice function as metaphors for a stagnant existence, while figures like Gimmel, the ice cream man, and the dancing grandparents embody archetypes balancing between the fairy-tale and the grotesque. Religious imagery is often distorted (the Virgin Mary with a “tongue of soft mayonnaise”), clashing against a desecrated sanctuary, a reflection of a fractured world.
### Style and Language
The Italian translation preserves the density of the original text, playing with a refined lexicon and a broken rhythm that evokes the breath of an ancient ballad. Bouders blends conflicting registers: the everyday (“ice-cream truck”) merges with the absurd (“a swan-that-clings-to-death”), creating a disorienting effect. The use of neologisms (“kohohohoante,” “stellobiliaire”) and astronomical references (Alpha Serpentis, Coma Berenices) adds depth while also risking alienating less experienced readers.
### Structure and Coherence
The chapters appear as autonomous visions, connected more by thematic echoes than linear narrative. Characters like Konney, the tailor sewing for the Virgin, and Rosalie in the mown field appear as fleeting phantoms, symbols of an unreachable past. The repetition of motifs—snow, dogs, eyes—forms a symbolic network inviting a circular, almost ritualistic reading.
### Translation and Adaptation
The Italian rendition maintains poetic fluidity, though some lexical choices (“dreghignante,” “Clorocinella”) may pose challenges. Nevertheless, the musical cadence of the text remains intact—as seen in the lines **”Tic tac. Tic tac. Gimmel waits / for the moon, tilted and imperious”**—demonstrating respect for the original rhythm.
### Place in Literary Tradition
Ginneninne recalls the surrealism of Alda Merini and the visionary darkness of Dino Campana but with a unique voice, northern in its ruggedness. The fusion of folklore and modernity, coupled with an unsettling aesthetic, places the work in dialogue with European traditions of poetic nonsense, from Lewis Carroll to Henri Michaux.
### Critical Assessment
This collection is not for everyone. It demands a reader willing to immerse themselves in labyrinths of meaning and accept incompleteness as a form of beauty. Its greatest strength—unbridled imagination and philosophical depth—is also its biggest vulnerability, as the risk of fragmentation is high. Yet for those seeking poetry that challenges the senses and awakens the subconscious, Ginneninne is a rare gift: an enchantment in verse that leaves traces on the soul.