This article is based on this Dutch article of Martijn Benders
Socks, socks, fruit baskets, and more socks
That I would ever translate a poem by Neruda was something I didn’t expect, but he is quite literally the only poet I could find who has written about socks. Could it be true that no other sock poem exists in the vast history of literature? What’s more, it’s not just a poem about socks; it’s an extraordinary piece by Pablo. I think the issue may have been the translations I encountered in the past, which were simply not very good.
I did heavily edit the poem, though. And why are hares actually soft? Hare fur strikes me as more coarse than anything else. Yet somehow, the sound and rhythm of the word work brilliantly in this context.
Because you are subscribers, I’m offering this free workshop—something I actually picked up from Arjan Ederveen. I vividly remember stumbling upon Kreatief met Kurk while channel-surfing. My father, who initially thought it was a genuine show, nearly choked with laughter when he realized the humor.
Arjan Ederveen stands in a league of his own within Dutch comedy. It’s a shame the man has been so inactive over the past decade. In a 2018 interview, he mentioned that he had entered the “adolescence of old age” and no longer had the energy he once did. He explained, “I don’t want to do extensive tours anymore or perform a play eighty to a hundred and twenty times. Being in a big musical requires performing six times a week—that just doesn’t appeal to me now.” He has also faced personal losses, including the deaths of two brothers in the nineties and caring for his mother, who had dementia.
Meanwhile, my third music video, Fruit Baskets, has been released. How creative can you get with fruit baskets, you might ask? I’m planning to create a 4K version with subtitles, where I’ll replace a few visuals to refine it further. Think of the current version as a rough draft. Even though each clip easily consumes a week of work, it’s worth the extra effort to polish it properly—a battle against my inner conceptual minimalist.
I rarely come across Dutch poetry collections that make me think, yes, this person had enough base material to justify publishing a full-fledged book.
You need to write, say, about 300 poems to curate a sharp, cohesive collection. But most poets seem to find that too much work. God forbid, it’s just a business card to wave around at performances, right?
And then you flip through such a collection and think, well, yes—a business card. A stark lack of foundational material. What truly drives these people forward?
And inevitably, you find they almost always write poetry that circles back to themselves.
Yours sincerely,
Martinus Benders, 23-11-2024