Landscape
J. Slauerhof
translation Ad Blankestijn
Bridges, thin as reeds, dart across
Wide smiling rivers.
Slender women cross with timid tread,
holding their supple garments tight, lest
gusting breezes blow them open.
They swirl up from the hold like butterflies,
Helpless and far from home.
The fishermen wait with their spears raised
For trout shining in the deep.
Junks follow the winding river,
High above the water, big hollow bubbles.
The mountain swells on all sides
To the profit of a lofty peak.
Perfect clouds form a wreath,
Visible thoughts of the good mountain god.
The earth dangles before the red evening sun,
A great round lantern, painted
With yellow deserts, gloomy valleys,
Gray rice fields and green lakes,
Swaying gently in the blue chamber of the sky.
LANDSCHAP
Sprietbruggen, dun als riethalmen, schichten
Over breedglimlachende rivieren .
Ranke vrouwtjes beschrijden ze beschroomd,
't Zacht gewaad angstvallig langs de zijden
Strakhoudend, dat geen windvlaag 't doet uitslaan
Als vlinders dwarrelden ze op door 't ruim,
Ontredderd meegevoerd, ver van huis .
Visschers wachten met loodrechte spies,
Of forellen zich blinkend verrieden in 't diep .
Jonken volgen den kronklenden stroom,
Hoog op den spiegel, groote holle blaren .
De berg zwelt omhoog uit alle verten
Naar de opbrengst van een slanken steilen top .
Volmaakte wolken vormen een krans
Zichtbare gedachten van den goeden berggod .
Voor roode avondzon hangt de aarde,
Een groote ronde lampion, beschilderd
Met gele woestijnen, donkre valleien,
Grijze rijstvelden en groene meren,
Zacht schommlend in de blauwe hemelzaal .
[J. Slauerhoff in Chinese dress]
Jan Jacob Slauerhoff (1898–1936) was a Dutch poet and novelist. He is considered one of the greatest Dutch poets of the twentieth century. Slauerhoff wrote poetry which is Modernist in style (in the tradition of for example Pound and Pessoa), but at the same time is imbued with a strong romantic feeling, like of the French "poètes maudits" (Rimbaud, Verlaine). Another influence was Chinese poetry in translation, especially the works of Li Bai and Bai Juyi (Slauerhoff also made Dutch translation of these Chinese poems). His themes are the yearning to be elsewhere (or somewhere in the past), the desire for the sea, disenchantment with modern life, loneliness, and the awareness of degeneration. Slauerhoff made his debut in 1923 with the collection Archipelago, in which almost all the elements present in his later
work can already be found.
Born and raised in Leeuwarden, capital of the province of Friesland, Slauerhoff studied medicine in Amsterdam. He became a ship's doctor and in that capacity traveled widely, to China, Hong Kong, Macau and Japan, as well as Latin-America. His poor health was repeatedly the cause of broken employment contracts.
Accordingly, he led an itinerant life. ‘Nowhere but in my poems can I
dwell,/ Nowhere else could I a shelter find’ are the first lines of one
of his most renowned poems (‘Homeless’), which can be regarded as
characteristic of his life and work:
Only in my poems can I dwell,
I never found shelter elsewhere;
I never longed for my own hearth,
A tent was blown away by the storm.
Only in my poems can I dwell,
and I don't care where I am -
the wilds, the steppes, city or forest -
As long as I know I can find that shelter.
It may take long, but the time will come
That I lack the old strength for the night
And beg in vain for soft words,
With which I could build in the past, and the earth
must hide me and I bow down to the
Place where my grave breaks open in the dark.
Besides poems, J. Slauerhoff (1898-1936) also wrote stories, novels, and a play. In addition, he published travelogues and reviews. Ten collections of his work were published during his comparatively short life. The last, Een eerlijk zeemansgraf (An Honorable Seaman’s Grave) appeared shortly before his death after a long illness, in a private clinic in The Netherlands. Despite his ‘violations’ of verse technique, Slauerhoff was regarded by his contemporaries as a genuine poet with a very distinctive voice. Nowadays he is one of the few poets from the previous century whose work is still widely read.
The poem quoted above depicts a beautiful East Asian landscape. It could be fictional, but I think the setting is in China (rather than Japan). Slauerhoff's ship has transported passengers (the women "butterfly-like" whirling up from the hold of the ship).
Texts, translations and studies:
Texts and secondary literature at DBNL. Slauerhof's work is in the public domain in the Netherlands. The above poem comes from the poetry collection Oost-Azië ("East Asia"), published in 1928.
Slauerhoff, Jacob (2012). The Forbidden Kingdom. London: Pushkin Press. (see my review of this novel)
Photos: Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons