100 Dutch-Language Poems: From the Medieval Period to the Present Day - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1907320490 ISBN 13: 9781907320491

Publisher: Holland Park Press, 2016

Synopsis

100 Dutch-Language Poems offers a wonderful new resource to poetry lovers around the world. It covers more than a millennium of poetry; from the very first written words in Dutch, a poem probably scribbled in the 11th century by a Dutch-speaking scribe in England to try out his pen, to the last poem by a young, spirited, award-winning twenty-first century female poet.Paul Vincent and John Irons have opted to restrict their selection to one poem per poet, no matter how important the poet. They used their own extensive knowledge of Dutch poetry to make a selection of classic, innovative and influential poems which together represent poetry from the Low Countries throughout the ages. They made a special effort to achieve the right balance in terms of earlier versus later, male versus female and North versus South.All poems, with one exception, have been translated into English by award-winning translators Paul Vincent and John Irons. They have decided to include the original Dutch poems with the translated versions thereby adding an extra dimension to this remarkable publication.Guido Gezelle's 't Er viel 'ne keer (A Little Leaf Once Fluttered) has been translated by Francis Jones using an English dialect. Paul and John have written a foreword full of interesting details about the selection process. Gaston Franssen, assistant professor of Literary Culture at the University of Amsterdam, has added an afterword in which he discusses how the Low Countries landscape has influenced Dutch-language poetry.

About this title

Review

Vertalers Paul Vincent en John Irons zijn genomineerd voor de Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize voor vertaling, voor hun bundel 100 Dutch-Language Poems. De Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize is 'for book-length literary translations into English from any living European language. It aims to honour the craft of translation, and to recognise its cultural importance'. (St Anne's College 2016-05-20)

'100 Dutch-Language Poems is een boeiende bloemlezing, die hopelijk aanzet tot vertalingen van afzonderlijke bundels. De Nederlandstalige poëzie is het waard.' (Hans Puper Meander 2015-11-10)

Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize 2016 is gewonnen door vertalers Paul Vincent en John Irons voor 100 Dutch-Language Poems en Philip Roughton voor zijn Jón Kalman Stefánsson-vertaling. De jury over 100 Dutch_language Poems: This treasury of Dutch and Flemish poems (parallel texts of originals and translations) brings together single works of poets ranging from the 11th century to the 21st. It is a rich anthology, based on the two translators' personal preferences, but also managing to represent something like a canon of important works judged by criteria clearly explained in the translators' preface. The judges are commending not only the quality of the translations but the selection itself of poets and poems, and the composition of a whole that is even more than the sum of its parts. There is to our knowledge no comparably wide-ranging collection available to English readers, and although inevitably some omissions will be felt, many of the most influential poets are indeed here, powerfully introduced in these new English versions. We believe that the book will be a uniquely valuable source for teachers and students, but we are impressed above all by the inventiveness, the variety, and often the sheer beauty of these English works, through which the Dutch poetic voices speak and sing to us. (St Anne's College 2016-06-22)

From the Back Cover

100 Dutch-Language Poems is an eclectic selection of poems written in the Dutch language from the 11th century to the present day. For the poetry lover it is a comprehensive introduction to poetry from the Low Countries and provides a wonderful insight into the themes and issues that influenced generations of poets.

The Dutch language text and the English translations are presented side by side making it a great resource for literature and language students and scholars.

A detailed foreword by Paul Vincent and John Irons who selected and translated the poems, as well as an intriguing afterword by Gaston Franssen, assistant professor of Literary Culture at the University of Amsterdam, add additional value to this necessary anthology.

Edition details

• Publisher: Holland Park Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1907320490
• ISBN 13: 9781907320491
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 250