Poetry from the Low Countries: Dordrecht's museum garden by Jan Eijkelboom

Monday, 26 October 2015

Dordrecht's museum garden by Jan Eijkelboom

Dordrecht's museum garden

When I am dead
in the garden of this museum
above the tangled noise of the leaves
a blackbird will sing just as clearly
on just such a late spring day.

And I, I shall be there no more
to forget with this singing
that I have to die in due course.

But on the other hand I shall
-you never know-
live much longer than that bird.
And anyhow when I lie six foot under
then my son shall once again hear
a blackbird sound just so
on just such a late spring day.
And he will know who I was
and oh, a bird knows nothing.

But on the other hand again:
if blackbirds could think about their fathers,
then they might croak like a raven.

Jan Eijkelboom 1926 - 2008
[photographer unknown]

Original title: Tuin Dordrechts museum - From: Wat blijft komt nooit terug - Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam, 1979.

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Hans van den Bos

was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1948.

In the late Sixties, after National Service, he began working in a bookshop, which he took over after a number of years. The shop, under his direction, became specialised in Literature, Modern Art and Architecture, containing one of the largest collections of poetry in the whole of The Netherlands.

He was invited, in the 1990's, by the former director of Poetry International, the late Martin Mooij, to display his poetry collection on a book stall at the annual festival in Rotterdam. In 1997 he closed the shop and 5 years later emigrated to Ireland, where he is presently busy as a writer and translator of poetry.

Contact: JohannesvandenBos@protonmail.com

Hilary Reynolds

Hilary Reynolds is an English/Dutch classical singer, music teacher and choral conductor, who was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela in 1954.

She studied singing and piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London and, after graduating in 1978, moved to The Netherlands, where she pursued a career as a concert singer and vocal coach. In 2002, she moved to Ireland, together with her husband, Hans van den Bos, where she had been invited by the Head of the Music Department of University College Cork to take up a post there teaching Vocal Studies, Art-Song and Opera.

For a number of years, she has collaborated with Hans van den Bos writing theatre shows and plays and assisted with translations of his own work as well as of other poets, including translations of Russian poetry by Anna Achmatova.