A Brit by Herman de Coninck

A Brit is somebody who is able to enter a department store, knock and ask: 'I hope I'm not interrupting?' perhaps a Brit does interrupt himself, a British personality must be something like a plank on which you sleep uncomfortably. but it will teach you discipline to keep feelings at a distance, the way you even keep a cigarette at a distance by a (spoken with an English accent, to keep the French language at a distance) port-cigarette. and thereby learning the disdain to be courteous. I still believe that Wellington, when he saw Napoleon's troops at Waterloo, must have said: 'quite interesting'. (Original title: 'Een Brit' -from the collection 'Poëzie is en daad van bevestiging' - Noord- en Zuidnederlandse poëzie van 1945 tot heden - gebundeld en ingeleid door C. Buddingh' en Eddy van Vliet - 1984 - Uitgeverij Manteau Amsterdam)

Herman  de Coninck [1944-1997]