Remco Campert
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 |