Maand: mei 2011

Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Jan Blokker, Niels ’t Hooft, Kaur Kender, Said, Adriaan Venema

 

De Franse schrijver Louis-Ferdinand Céline (pseudoniem van Louis Ferdinand Destouches) werd geboren in Courbevoie op 27 mei 1894. Zie ook mijn blog van 27 mei 2010 en eveneens alle tags voor Louis-Ferdinand Céline op dit blog.

 

Uit: Reise ans Ende der Nacht (Vertaald door Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel)

 

„Die Arbeiter konnten einen anwidern, wie sie sich über die Maschinen beugten, ängstlich bemüht, ihnen jeden nur denkbaren Gefallen zu tun, sie mit passenden Bolzen zu füttern, einem nach dem anderen, statt ein für alle Mal Schluß damit zu machen, mit diesem Ölgestank, diesem Qualm, der einem die Kehle hochsteigt, bis in die Ohren, und einem die Trommelfelle verbrennt. […] Man ergibt sich dem Lärm wie dem Krieg. […] Man muß das Leben draußen zunichte machen, es genauso in Stahl verwandeln, in etwas Nutzbares. […] Man muß einen Gegenstand draus machen, was Hartes, das ist die Vorschrift.

(…)

 

Die Sonnenuntergänge in dieser afrikanischen Hölle erwiesen sich als spektakulär. Beeindruckend. Tragisch jedes Mal, wie ein Riesengemetzel an der Sonne. Eine Mordsveranstaltung. Allerdings ein bißchen zu viel Bewunderung für einen einzelnen Menschen. Der Himmel vollführte eine Stunde lang Paraden, vom einen Ende zum anderen mit delirierendem Scharlachrot angeklatscht, dann platzte das Grün inmitten der Bäume los und stieg in zitternden Schlieren vom Boden bis zu den ersten Sternen hinauf. Danach eroberte Grau den gesamten Horizont, dann wieder Rot, aber jetzt war es müde, das Rot, und hielt sich nicht lang. So ging es zu Ende. Sämtliche Farben fielen in Fetzen wieder herab, ausgewaschen, auf den Wald, wie Flitterkram nach der hundertsten Vorstellung. Jeden Tag genau um sechs Uhr lief das so ab.“

 

 

Louis-Ferdinand Céline (27 mei 1894 – 1 juli 1961)

 

 

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John Barth, Herman Wouk, John Cheever, Dashiell Hammett, Georges Eekhoud

De Amerikaanse schrijver John Barth werd geboren op 27 mei 1930 in Cambridge, Maryland. Zie ook mijn blog van 27 mei 2009 en ook mijn blog van 27 mei 2010

 

Uit: The End of the Road

 

“What the hell for?”

Rennie had started out with pretty firm, solemn control, but now she got choky and couldn’t, or wouldn’t, answer the question.

“Has he turned you out?”

“No. Can’t you understand why he sent me up here? Please don’t make me explain it!” Tears were imminent.

“Honestly, I couldn’t guess, Rennie. Are we supposed to reenact the crime in a more analyzable way, or what?”

Well, that finished her control; the head-whipping began. Rennie, incidentally, looked great to me. She’d obviously been suffering intensely for the past few days, and, like exhausted strength, it lent her the sexual attractiveness that tormented women occasionally have. Tender, lovelike feelings announced their presence in me.

“Everything that’s happened wrenches my heart,” I said to her, laying my hand on her shoulder. “You’ve no idea how much I sympathize with Joe, and how much more with you. But he sure is making a Barnum and Bailey out of it, isn’t he? This sending you up here is the damnedest thing I ever heard of. Is it supposed to be punishment?”

“It’s not ridiculous unless you’re determined to see it that way,” Rennie said, tearfully but vehemently. “Of course you’d say it was, just so you won’t have to take Joe seriously.”

“What’s it all about, for heaven’s sake?”

“I didn’t want to see you again, Jake. I told Joe that. He told me everything you said to him last night, and at first I thought you were lying all the way. I guess you know I’ve hated you ever since we made love; when I told Joe about it, I didn’t leave out anything we did–not a single detail–but I blamed you for everything.”

 

 

John Barth (Cambridge, 27 mei 1930)

 

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Max Brod, Arnold Bennett, Richard Schaukal, Ferdynand Ossendowski, M. A. vonThümmel

 

De Tsjechisch-Israëlische dichter, schrijver, criticus en componist Max Brod werd geboren in Praag op 27 mei 1884. Zie ook mijn blog van 27 mei 2007 en ook mijn blog van 27 mei 2009 enook mijn blog van 27 mei 2010

 

Die dunklen Mächte

Die dunklen Mächte, denen du gebietest,
Sind ohne Mund und Augen. Starr
Verzaubern sie, wie Nebel fugendicht und schwer
Durch die ein süsser Dunst von Most versickert.

Doch draussen, vor dem offnen Fenster spielen
Die Kinder, klingt der Amseln
Geläut wie starker Mai,
und ging ich diese Vorstadtstrasse weiter,
Käm ich zu Hügeln, hell ergrünten Feldern
Mit Licht und leichter Luft darüber hin,
Die sich in Blüten reingebatet hat, –
Fern aller Sorge, allem Fuselduft,
Wie gerne zög ich diesen Weg, und frei
Trüg ich die Hände, hochgemut das Haupt.

 


Max Brod (27 mei 1884 – 20 december 1968)

 

 

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Alan Hollinghurst, Radwa Ashour, Hugo Raes, Isabella Nadolny, Vítězslav Nezval

 

De Britse schrijver Alan Hollinghurst werd geboren op 26 mei 1954 in Stoud, Gloucestershire. Zie ook mijn blog van 26 mei 2007 en ook mijn blog van 26 mei 2008 en ook mijn blog van 26 mei 2009 en ook mijn blog van 26 mei 2010.

 

Uit: The Line of Beauty

 

“He had a blind date at eight that evening, and the hot August day was a shimmer of nerves, with little breezy interludes of lustful dreaming. The date wasn’t totally blind – ‘just very short-sighted”, Catherine Fedden said, when Nick showed her the photograph and the letter. She seemed to like the look of the man, who was called Leo, and who she said was so much her type; but his handwriting made her jumpy. It was both elaborate and impetuous. Catherine had a paperback called Graphology: The Mind in the Hand, which gave her all sorts of warnings about people’s tendencies and repressions (“Artist or Madman?” “Pet or Brute?”). “It’s those enormous ascenders, darling,” she said: “I see a lot of ego.” They had pursed their lips again over the little square of cheap blue writing paper. “You’re sure that doesn’t just mean a very strong sex drive?” Nick asked. But she seemed to think not. He had been excited, and even rather moved, to get this letter from a stranger; but it was true the text itself raised few expectations. “Nick – OK! Ref your letter, am in Personnel (London Borough of Brent). We can meet up, discuss Interests and Ambitions. Say When. Say Where” – and then the enormous rampant L of Leo going halfway down the page.

 

 

 

Don Gilet (Leo) en Dan Stevens (Nick) in de tv-serie „The Line of Beauty“ uit 2006.

 


Nick had moved into the Feddens’ big white Notting Hill house a few weeks before. His room was up in the roof; still clearly the children’s zone, with its lingering mood of teenage secrets and rebellions. Toby’s orderly den was at the top of the stairs, Nick’s room just along the skylit landing, and Catherine’s at the far end; Nick had no brothers or sisters but he was able to think of himself here as a lost middle child. It was Toby who had brought him here, in earlier vacations, for his London “seasons”, long thrilling escapes from his own far less glamorous family; and Toby whose half-dressed presence still haunted the attic passage. Toby himself had never perhaps known why he and Nick were friends, but had amiably accepted the evidence that they were. In these months after Oxford he was rarely there, and Nick had been passed on as a friend to his little sister and to their hospitable parents. He was a friend of the family; and there was something about him they trusted, a gravity, a certain shy polish, something not quite apparent to Nick himself; which had helped the family agree that he should become their lodger.”

 

 


Alan Hollinghurst (Stoud, 26 mei 1954)

 

 

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Maxwell Bodenheim, Ivan O. Godfroid, Edmond De Goncourt, Mary Wortley Montagu, Ellen Deckwitz, Machteld Brands

 

De Amerikaanse dichter en schrijver Maxwell Bodenheim werd geboren op 26 mei 1892 in Hermanville, Mississippi. Zie ook mijn blog van 26 mei 2009 en ook mijn blog van 26 mei 2010.

 

 

Advice To a Blue-Bird

 

Who can make a delicate adventure

Of walking on the ground?

Who can make grass-blades

Arcades for pertly careless straying?

You alone, who skim against these leaves,

Turning all desire into light whips

Moulded by your deep blue wing-tips,

You who shrill your unconcern

Into the sternly antique sky.

You to whom all things

Hold an equal kiss of touch.

 

Mincing, wanton blue-bird,

Grimace at the hoofs of passing men.

You alone can lose yourself

Within a sky, and rob it of its blue!

 

 

 

The Child Meditates

 

The oak-tree in front of my house

Smells different every morning.

Sometimes it smells fresh and wise

Like my mother’s hair.

Sometimes it stands ashamed

Because it doesn’t own the smell

It borrowed from our flower-garden.

Sometimes it has a windy smell,

As though it had come back from a long walk.

The oak-tree in front of my house

Has different smells, like grown up people.

 

My doll hides behind her pink cheeks,

So that you can’t see when she moves,

But it doesn’t matter because

She always moves when no one is looking,

And that is why people think she is still.

People laugh when I say that my doll is alive,

But if she were dead, my fingers

Wouldn’t know that they were touching her.

She lives inside a little house.

And laughs because I cannot find the door.

 

The colours in my room

Meet each other and hesitate.

Is that what people call shape?

Nobody seems to think so,

But I believe that lines are dead shapes

Unless they fall against each other

And look surprised, like the colours in my room!

 

 

 

Maxwell Bodenheim (26 mei 1892 – 6 februari 1954)

 

 

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Eve Ensler, Friedrich Dieckmann, Egyd Gstättner, Claire Castillon, Jamaica Kincaid, Robert Ludlum

De Amerikaanse schrijfster en feminste Eve Ensler werd op 25 mei 1953 in New York geboren. Zie ook mijn blog van 25 mei 2009 en ook mijn blog van 25 mei 2010

 

Uit: Insecure at Last

 

„Security watch. Security clearance. Why has all this focus on security made me feel so much more insecure? What does anyone mean when they speak of security? Why are we suddenly a nation and a people who strive for security above all else?

In fact, security is essentially elusive, impossible. We all die. We all get sick. We all get old. People leave us. People surprise us. People change us. Nothing is secure. And this is the good news. But only if you are not seeking security as the point of your life.

When security is paramount you can’t travel very far or venture too far outside a certain circle. You can’t allow too many conflicting ideas into your mind at one time, as they might confuse you or challenge you. You can’t open yourself to new experiences, new people, and new ways of doing things. They might take you off course.

You can’t not know who you are; it’s more secure to cling to hard-matter identity. So you become a Christian or a Muslim or a Jew, you are an Indian, or an Egyptian or an Italian or an American. You are heterosexual or homosexual or you never have sex or at least that’s what you say when you identify yourself. You become part of an US, and in order to be secure, you must defend against THEM. You cling to your land because it is your secure place, and you must fight anyone who encroaches on it.

You become your nation, you become your religion. You become whatever it is that will freeze you, numb you, and protect you from change or doubt. But all this does is shut down your mind. In reality, you are not a drop safer. A meteor could still fall from the sky, a tsunami could rise up next to your beach house, someone could fly a plane through your building.“

 

 

 Eve Ensler (New York, 25 mei 1953)

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Theodore Roethke, Georges Bordonove, W. P. Kinsella, Max von der Grün

De Amerikaanse dichter Theodore Huebner Roethke werd geboren in Saginaw, Michigan op 25 mei 1908. Zie ook mijn blog van 25 mei 2010 en eveneens alle tags voor Theodore Roethke op dit blog..

 

Root Cellar

 

Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch,

Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the dark,

Shoots dangled and drooped,

Lolling obscenely from mildewed crates,

Hung down long yellow evil necks, like tropical snakes.

And what a congress of stinks!

Roots ripe as old bait,

Pulpy stems, rank, silo-rich,

Leaf-mold, manure, lime, piled against slippery planks.

Nothing would give up life:

Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath.

 

 

Pickle Belt

 

The fruit rolled by all day.

They prayed the cogs would creep;

They thought about Saturday pay,

And Sunday sleep.

 

Whatever he smelled was good:

The fruit and flesh smells mixed.

There beside him she stood,–

And he, perplexed;

 

He, in his shrunken britches,

Eyes rimmed with pickle dust,

Prickling with all the itches

Of sixteen-year-old lust.

 

 

 

Theodore Roethke (25 mei 1908 – 1 augustus 1963)

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Raymond Carver, John Gregory Dunne, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rosario Castellanos, Alain Grandbois, Naim Frashëri

De Amerikaanse dichter en schrijver Raymond Carver werd geboren op 25 mei 1938 in Port Angeles. Zie ook mijn blog van 25 mei 2009 en ook mijn blog van 25 mei 2010

 

Happiness

 

So early it’s still almost dark out.

I’m near the window with coffee,

and the usual early morning stuff

that passes for thought.

 

When I see the boy and his friend

walking up the road

to deliver the newspaper.

 

They wear caps and sweaters,

and one boy has a bag over his shoulder.

They are so happy

they aren’t saying anything, these boys.

 

I think if they could, they would take

each other’s arm.

It’s early in the morning,

and they are doing this thing together.

 

They come on, slowly.

The sky is taking on light,

though the moon still hangs pale over the water.

 

Such beauty that for a minute

death and ambition, even love,

doesn’t enter into this.

 

Happiness. It comes on

unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really,

any early morning talk about it.

 

 

 

Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year

 

October. Here in this dank, unfamiliar kitchen

I study my father’s embarrassed young man’s face.

Sheepish grin, he holds in one hand a string

of spiny yellow perch, in the other

a bottle of Carlsbad Beer.

 

In jeans and denim shirt, he leans

against the front fender of a 1934 Ford.

He would like to pose bluff and hearty for his posterity,

Wear his old hat cocked over his ear.

All his life my father wanted to be bold.

 

But the eyes give him away, and the hands

that limply offer the string of dead perch

and the bottle of beer. Father, I love you,

yet how can I say thank you, I who can’t hold my liquor either,

and don’t even know the places to fish?

 

 
Raymond Carver (25 mei 1938 – 2 augustus 1988)

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70 Jaar Bob Dylan, Joseph Brodsky, Michael Chabon, Henri Michaux, William Trevor

 

70 Jaar Bob Dylan

 

 

De Amerikaanse zanger, songwriter en dichter Bob Dylan werd geboren als Robert Allen Zimmerman op 24 mei 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. Zie ook mijn blog van 24 mei 2009 en ook mijn blog van 24 mei 2010. Bob Dylan viert vandaag zijn 70e verjaardag.

 

 

Blowing In The Wind

  

How many roads must a man walk down,

before you call him a man?

How many seas must a white dove fly,

before she sleeps in the sand?

And how many times must a cannon ball fly,

before they’re forever banned?

 

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind,

the answer is blowing in the wind.

 

How many years can a mountain exist,

before it is washed to the sea?

How many years can some people exist,

before they’re allowed to be free?

And how many times can a man turn his head,

and pretend that he just doesn’t see?

 

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind,

the answer is blowing in the wind.

 

How many times must a man look up,

before he sees the sky?

And how many ears must one man have,

before he can hear people cry ?

And how many deaths will it take till we know,

that too many people have died?

 

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind,

the answer is blowing in the wind.

 

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind,

the answer is blowing in the wind.

 

 

 

Bob Dylan (Duluth, 24 mei 1941)

 

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Tobias Falberg, Arnold Wesker, Rainald Goetz, George Tabori, Louis Fürnberg, Michail Sjolochov, Arthur Wing Pinero, Jean de La Varende, Kamiel Vanhole

 

De Duitse schrijver en tekenaar Tobias Falberg werd geboren op 24 mei 1976 in Wittenberg. Zie ook mijn blog van 24 mei 2010

 

 

Botanischer Trichter

 

Pulsierende Gärten, getarntes

Areal: Signal um Signal versinnlicht

dir Fährten, und tappst du hinein,

zappt das Programm auf

 

Wachstum im Raffer (ein Fenster

von Millisekunden) eigentlich schöner Wild-

blumen, zahnweiß, Rosa

canina: Blüten vor allem, gefächerte

Massen, die aufblättern bei Eintritt

nachgeben und breit haften,

 

ein Nightswim in Styropor-

kugeln, nur zäher und merklich mehr

schmerzhaft an den Bissstellen, Mollusken, weiche

Todesstreifen: verlassen, aber technisch gereift und nie

außer Betrieb.

 

 

 


Tobias Falberg (Wittenberg, 24 mei 1976)

 

 

Lees verder “Tobias Falberg, Arnold Wesker, Rainald Goetz, George Tabori, Louis Fürnberg, Michail Sjolochov, Arthur Wing Pinero, Jean de La Varende, Kamiel Vanhole” →