{"id":16823,"date":"2022-05-20T15:39:55","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T19:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/?page_id=16823"},"modified":"2022-09-11T17:09:17","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T21:09:17","slug":"three-poems-from-dutch-by-herman-de-coninck-translated-by-laure-anne-bosselaar","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/three-poems-from-dutch-by-herman-de-coninck-translated-by-laure-anne-bosselaar\/","title":{"rendered":"Three poems from Dutch by Herman De Coninck, Translated by Laure-Anne Bosselaar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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EPITHALAMIUM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Choose me.  Choose me out of the whole population<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
of the world.  You can hesitate a little<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
about other guys,<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
but then choose me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Worldly wisdom no one really wants,<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
old uncle Louie\u2019s jokes, rumors,<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
put your arms around this,<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
it\u2019s yours.  You can have it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll have you, get to have you every day,<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
and may even love your daughter.
Let\u2019s marry\u2014all of us.<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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SHE AND HE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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She bravely holds<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
her happiness up\u2014<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
and her breasts.  Her temper\u2019s<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
wired like a bra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\u2019s composed of joyful<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
ha-ha\u2019s, but for years<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
he\u2019s locked his passion behind bars:<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
the stripes of his pajamas.<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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SAILOR\u2019S  SONG<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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See how Melinda sleeps holding<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
her breasts in her arms like two blond<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
children, and not far away<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
sleeps her oldest\u2014with the black<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
curls. Why would Melinda<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
want children, her body<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
is a whole family.<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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ZEEMANSLIEDJE (SAILOR\u2019S   SONG)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Kijk hoe Melinda slaapt met d\u2019r<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
borsten in d\u2019r armen als twee blonde<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
kinderen.  En even verderop<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
slaapt haar oudste met de zwarte<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
krullen.  Waarom zou Melinda<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
kinderen willen,  d\u2019r lichaam<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
is een heel gezin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014Herman de Coninck<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
from The Plural of Happiness<\/em> (Oberlin College Press)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
(transl. L.A. Bosselaar & Kurt Brown)<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"
1994-02-15 Antwerpen portret van Herman de Coninck (1944-1997)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Herman De Coninck<\/strong> (1944\u20131997), poet, essayist, and critic, was editor of the Flemish weekly magazine Humo and the literary magazine Nieuw Wereld Tijdschrift. The author of many collections of poetry, his work includes Onbegonnen werk (Hopeless Task, 1984), Enkelvoud (Singular, 1991), Schoolslag (Breaststroke, 1994), and the posthumously published Vingerafdrukken (Fingerprints). Kurt Brown and Laure-Anne Bosselaar translated a selection of his poems entitled The Plural of Happiness,  with a foreword by Charles Simic \u2014 Oberlin College Press, Field Translation Series (2006)  <\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Permissions granted by Herman de Coninck\u2019s spouse,  Kristien Hemmerechts, 2005 as well as from the publisher Arbeidspers, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Laure-Anne Bosselaar<\/strong> is the author of The Hour Between Dog and Wolf<\/em>, Small Gods of Grief, <\/em>winner of the Isabella Gardner Prize for Poetry<\/em> for 2001, and of A New Hunger<\/em>, an ALA Notable Book<\/em>. Four Way Books<\/em> published her latest collection: These Many Rooms<\/em>. Her poetry was featured on Poetry Daily,<\/em> The Academy of American Poets\u2019 Poem-a-Day<\/em> and in reviews such as Orion, Georgia Review, Five Points, Ploughshares, and Harvard Review<\/em>. A Pushcart Prize recipient, she was awarded the James Dickey Poetry Prize for 2020.  She is the editor of five anthologies, and taught at Emerson College,  Sarah Lawrence College, UCSB, and is a member of the founding faculty at the Solstice Low Residency MFA.  She served as Santa Barbara\u2019s Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur idea in calling this the ‘Translator\u2019s Page’ is to show the ways and\/or languages in which a translator works. Monthly posts may include translations from different languages and styles and centuries. The connective thread between them is the ability of the translator to interpret cultures and time periods for the contemporary reader.\u201d \u2014Jonathan Wells, curator of The Translator’s Page<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the Translator’s Page archive click HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EPITHALAMIUM Choose me.  Choose me out of the whole population of the world.  You can hesitate a little about other guys, but then choose me. Worldly wisdom no one really wants, old uncle Louie\u2019s jokes, rumors, put your arms around this, it\u2019s yours.  You can have it all. I\u2019ll have you, get to have you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-16823","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16823"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17522,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16823\/revisions\/17522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}