This article is based on this dutch article of Martinus Benders This poem was heavily censored by DeepSeek when I asked it to translate it into Korean. Which of course immediately illustrates my critique of communism: how on earth could those joyless blocks of flats ever represent a utopia? Shouldn’t we first reflect deeply before…
Month: April 2025
Is It the Coke or Am I Woke?
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders April 28, 2025 Now that Americans are rapidly becoming less like us than we thought, it was only a matter of time before Kroes came out of the closet again. A true story—these days you really have to be careful who your daughter brings…
We just have to comply with that
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders We Just Have to Go Along With It I made my own selection from Sriveer’s project Mantra Dance, mostly choosing tracks featuring Vajrayoginis because I think they are the best: An angry Kroes showed up at my door. I had to stop ‘throwing my…
The Boy Who Carried Water in a Sieve
This article is based on this Dutch article by Martinus Benders The Boy Who Carried Water in a Sieve Drawing by Veronique. Also available for viewing at Veerland.nl I think I will place it at the back of the new Zeefjesdans translations (need to ask first). The final preparations before we set off on the…
The Colle Cloquetisse
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders It is done: I had to perch like an enormous toad atop every sentence, but in my view, it has become a very fine French translation that truly holds its own against the original. You know, the collection that wasn’t reviewed anywhere in the…
A Reflection on A.I.
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders A Reflection on A.I. Phonetics took precedence over meaning. A beautiful new cover for the Italian translation of O Kolle Klokkespin. I’m a designer myself, but I couldn’t have done this better. In fact, I doubt whether any designer could have pulled this off…
O Kolle Tiktak Spider
This article is based on this dutch article of Martinus Benders O Kolle Tiktakörümcek A literal-literal rendering such as saat örümceği or klokken-örümcek doesn’t work in Turkish for three key reasons: Sound and rhythm disappear • Klokkenspin / Clockyspid owes its charm to the repeated explosive consonants (k-l-k / k-l-k) combined with the suddenly soft…
A jacket with wings
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders Wings — the man’s instability is obvious from his publisher’s address. But alright, first spend ten years pretending to be a Nijhoff clone with outdated sonnets, thought Breukers: let’s dominate this scene. As a student of Joosten, he knew exactly what cultural capital valued:…
Divine Elixirs and Heavenly Boys: Art, Myth, and the Mysteries of Ambrosia
### Amanita 18 Perhaps the scholars of old were too enshrined, In titles, rituals, distinctions blind— Unwilling to traverse the deeper thread, Where art breathes life and mystery is fed. Or was it sloth that dulled the scholar’s eye, Too weary for the truths that never lie? * Weedgenstein: Must we reveal what makes the…
The Pastor
The app blinks twice. A silence settles between updates—lingering like steam on commuter glass. I forget my own name at the kiosk, tap “Yes” to terms I haven’t read. Above me, fluorescents flicker as if decoding the soul’s fine print. A child screams in aisle seven: cereal or abandonment—one or the other. Self-checkout beeps like…