Remco Campert

Translated by Donald Gardner

from Someone Asks the Question

Resistance doesn’t begin with big words
but with small deeds


like a storm with a soft rustling in the garden
or the cat that suddenly goes off its head


like broad rivers
from a small spring
hidden in the forest


like a conflagration
with the same match
as you light your cigarette


as love with a look
or a touch or something in a voice that strikes you


asking yourself a question
that’s where resistance starts


and then asking someone else the same question.



Poetry

I never cared much for beautiful poetry 
unless you didn’t notice it was beautiful 
quick as the light
skimming along a rail track
or snow flake melting on a paving stone
apart from that I’ve never cared much for beautiful poetry
unless it was very beautiful
like the time you stood at the tram stop
and I glimpsed you in passing
image that stayed 
poetry that lasts



On the Overtoom

It’s thawing on the Overtoom 
yet the frost’s setting in again 
or so my feet tell me
that measure my day
I stick close to home
ever closer
that’s my age
clouds swell with a wan colour
yesterday’s smell still clings to me
I ate with my friend
we broke bread together
and talked about our dead 
we’re almost out of sight 
though we still laugh 
what else can you do? 
hug each other goodbye 
after all you never know

​

Remco Campert (b. 1929) is one of Holland’s best-loved writers. Besides his poetry, he has written many short stories and novellas. He is also a very popular newspaper columnist and continues to write a weekly column for De Volkskrant. A member of the Vijftigers, Campert is known for his use of irony and understatement as vehicles for a range of emotions and ideas. Among the many honours he has received for his poetry and prose, he was awarded the triennial Prize of Dutch-language Literature for his complete works by King Philip of Belgium in 2015. The jury’s comment on this occasion was that: ‘The depths in Campert’s work are to be found on the surface’. Two selections of his poetry, compiled and translated by Donald Gardner, have been published in the UK: ‘I Dreamed in the Cities at Night’ (Arc, 2007) and ‘In those Days’ (Shoestring, 2014).




From In Those Days, Shoestring, Nottingham, 2014.
http://www.shoestring-press.com/2014/12/in-those-days/

‘Poetry’ was first published by Poetry Review, 2007
‘On the Overtoom’ was first published on Poetry International Web: http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/4034/6/Remco-Campert

The originals of ‘Poetry’ and ‘On the Overtoom’ are in Nieuwe herinneringen, Bezige Bij, Amsterdam, 2007
​
The original of ‘Someone Asks the Question’ is in Betere tijden, Bezige Bij, Amsterdam, 1970

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