CHARLES-FERDINAND RAMUZ

Where there is poetry, there is no loneliness anymore. That is why the poet is at the same time the least lonely and the most lonely of all men.


From: Journal 1896-1943





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

WILLEM WILMINK (6)

For me, a poem is an image in itself, just like those medieval cathedrals that formed an image of what it would be like in heaven. The idea behind it was that if we do our best, we might be able to make something just as beautiful as later in heaven and moreover, that structure can help us to get there, in that real heaven.





Some poems seem like a big vision, but often more has been sought and toiled than was given.





Rhythm is something like the way someone walks. This is characteristic of someone and often that rhythm is in accordance with someone's statements; what he talks about and the rhythm in which he talks about it, that corresponds to good poems.





I really believe that it is one of the medicines; poetry and art in general for what we are dealing with. The entire art education is therefore of great importance for public health.





You can only understand your own poems properly if you have a good knowledge of other people's poems.





You don't need some professor for the poem to appeal. However, you can say that someone can help you further or give you a key to someone's work.





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

LEOPOLD M. VAN DEN BRANDE (2)

I believe that every poem I write is an affirmation of my supreme freedom, despite my attachment to my body, society, the environment, my friends... Poetry has nothing to do with reality; it is, as Artaud said, working in eternity.





Poetry is something you have to be constantly working on. Being a poet is a lifelong pregnancy. Because poetry comes from the subconscious, you are constantly working on it, it is a constant tension between the conscious and the unconscious. Poetry is a truth that replaces reality.





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

ADRIAAN MORRIEN

Everything requires expertise: profession, politics, education, even love. But there is an audience that turns away disturbed or conceited when a poem cannot be read and understood at first glance. For these people, poetry must be as flat as their own souls.





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

MARNIX GIJSEN

Poetry should be protected from poets, for it is the most precious thing we possess.





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

PAUL RODENKO

Dutch world poetry begins in 1950.





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

SIMON VINKENOOG

Dutch poetry begins in 1950.





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

ADRIAAN DE ROOVER

The poet has nothing to tell, for he is writing from a world that he doesn’t know himself. That's the magic he pulls off. The modernist poet is a magician, but definitely not a priest.





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

ROGER M.J. DE NEEF

As a historian, I am less interested in facts than in the horse and cart, the road, ordinary society. Because the poet is nothing but a medium, he must choose the moments to register things, to give them a form.





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

GWY MANDELINCK (2)

I assume that a poem is a kind of meander within a stream of experiences. For me, the whole poetry experience is a flow experience.





In my opinion, an aquarium is a small dark water house. The images that you gain in poetry are the light sources that you plant in that aquarium. In it, a kind of rhythm is brought about by the various schools of fish that slide from one light source to another. That mobility can be compared to the musicality that you try to achieve in a poem. Just like such an aquarium, a poem is a closed whole full of rhythm.





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

ADRIAAN ROLAND HOLST

It is only in the youth of a poet that the influence of another poet can be beneficial and productive without cornering his independence from that subordination in which this first fresh air of admiration is corrupted by surpressed resentment.

From a speech for fellow poet Gerrit Achterberg



Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

G.M. BERELAF

Reciting poems is quite pointless. I know how it goes for myself as a spectator: I always only get a few impressions, which are mainly due to the performance. I've seen people recite crappy poems in a beautiful way, and beautiful poems in a crappy way. The charm of the presentation is therefore much more important than what you have to say.




Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

JOHN IRONS

The Dutch poet Gerrit Komrij, himself a seasoned translator, once remarked "Keep away from translating if you’re not a poet". He is absolutely right. Translating poetry means creating poetry. And in that sense the poet and translator are equals.




Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl