This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders: https://martijnbenders.substack.com/p/er-duiken-weer-enzovoortellipsi-op — Are Enzovoortellipsi Emerging Again? What an unparalleled pleasure, what a literary triumph to once again wander through the lush gardens of Dutch-language poetry on the digital pages of Neerlandistiek! And behold, like a radiant fountain of genius, the work of Esohe Weyden,…
Indirect contact with fun protection
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders: https://martijnbenders.substack.com/p/via-via-contact-met-pretbescherming Via via contact with pleasure protection Night of Poetry Tonight is the Night of Poetry which thrives on stage, in Utrecht, Tivoli Vredenburg. But yesterday I stood by a water basin in the forest park in Lokeren. With the back of my hand,…
The cursed records of the princess cabinet
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders: https://martijnbenders.substack.com/p/de-vloekplaten-van-de-prinsessenkast **The Curse Panels of the Princess Wardrobe** A major downside of translating your own work is being constantly confronted with your own traumas. Of course, in Piranha, I had already referred to the bulk of literary criminals by abbreviations (because I didn’t want…
The writer as a trail marker for the cynical little men of information management
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders: https://martijnbenders.substack.com/p/de-schrijver-als-pistekenpaal-voor The Writer as a Marker Pole for the Cynical Bureaucrats of Information Management Early in the morning, hard at work. I have now put my entire site in Italian. My resolution to no longer publish in Dutch thus takes concrete shape: although I…
Two Works by Can Yücel
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders: https://martijnbenders.substack.com/p/twee-werken-van-can-yucel TWO WORKS BY CAN YÜCEL Friends Are Like Rivers Friends are like rivers: some have little water, others a lot. With one, only your hands get wet, with another, your soul is washed from head to toe. There are people covered with water…
Ark, earrings, fan, in sleep
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders: https://martijnbenders.substack.com/p/ark-oorbellen-waaier-in-de-slaap Ark, Earrings, Fan, In the Sleep What makes the translation project into Italian so enjoyable is that I am working at a very relaxed pace of ten pages per day while also engaging three LLMs to better familiarize myself with Italian literature by…
Day in day out in the name of spawning
Stars If everyone is a star —we have to believe something —brown dwarfs would be the majority. And they barely emit light,just dull TV glarethat gives one a headache. White dwarfsare even worse:harshly lit canteens. Imagine the gardens we’d growif the sky burned only red giants. Think how love poems would blazeif your small…
6 Poems: Willem 1
Let Me Let mebelieve in heresy,something to set me adrift.Like an old bumblebeerecklessly diving into forget-me-nots. In the golden stanza of my flight,drowning out the refrain of death,please mistake me for the sun,chrysanthemums,homely daisies,wide-eyed dandelions. This swollen dreamhums through your drawn-out heart. How So, Lilacs? Today,one of the few Wikipedia entries with no discussion page,I…
Freedom is funny
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders: https://benderstranslations.substack.com/p/vrijheid-is-grappig Freedom Is Funny Foreword by Jurgen Eissink In the onstage conversation following his lecture On Liberty (Enschede, April 17, 2010), György Konrád—before a highly animated audience that was barely listening anymore—continued reflecting on the difference between life in the Eastern Bloc and that…
The Moon Moth Monastery
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders: https://martijnbenders.substack.com/p/het-maanmottenmonasterium The Moon Moth Monastery Apart from causing the collapse of the Wilhelmina Tower, the Blood Moon also brought about the birth of three moon moths. This is Droek, enjoying sunlight for the first time. The reason the moth doesn’t fly away from the…