De Nederlandse dichteres Ester Naomi Perquin werd geboren in Utrecht op 16 januari 1980. Zie ook alle tags voor Ester Naomi Perquin op dit blog.
Kortom
ik herinner me wel de sneeuw,
de Karelsbrug in Praag, hoe jij –
hoe jij tot op vandaag lacht om
iets dat ik niet zag, wat vlokken
van mijn schouder slaat.
Hoe ieder zinloos ingewikkeld
sneeuwkristal op kinderkoppen
achterblijft en erger:
dat het ons niet daarom gaat.
Maar of er een moment zal zijn
waarop wij wezenlijker samen
– ik weet niet eens of wij
dat toen wel waren, wat jij
voorbij mijn blikveld ziet.
Taal valt armoedig in een zin als:
weet je nog we gingen
met de eerste sneeuw naar Praag
om samen op de brug te staan
en smelt al bij; we gingen niet.
Vreemden
Zoals je jezelf op een foto waarop je ruggelings staat afgebeeld
herkent maar omdat het onnatuurlijk blijft
liever niet meer bent – zo is de ander
precies zoals je zelf al denkt: het is niet goed teveel te weten,
geheimen tekenen verstand, geven iets om handen
leg tussen jezelf / de ander een diepe zee en verf je haren,
hou je onhoorbaar voor elke poging tot elkaar, verzet je
tegen nadering met rotsvast uitgesproken namen.
geef volle ruchtbaarheid en ga een oorlog aan, wees
te allen tijde onveranderbaar. Val met niemand samen.
Ester Naomi Perquin (Utrecht, 16 januari 1980)
De Deense dichteres, schrijfster en essayiste Inger Christensen werd geboren op 16 januari 1935 in de stad Vejle aan de oostkust van Jutland. Zie ook alle tags voor Inger Christensen op dit blog.
Uit: Alphabet (fragment)
the earth that Jayadeva sings in his mystic
12 century poem; the earth with its coastline
of conscience, blue and with nests
where the large heron exists, with its neck curved
blue-gray , or the small heron exists, mysterious
and shy, or the night heron, the ash-colored heron exist
and the degrees of wing beats of sparrows, of cranes
and pigeons; the earth with Jullundur, Jabalpur and
Jungfrau exists, with Jotunheim and the Jura
exists, with Jabron and Jambo, Jogkarta
exists, with earth-swirls and earth-smoke exists
with water masses, landmasses, earthquakes exists,
with Judenburg, Johannesburg and the Jerusalem of Jerusalems
*
atombombs exist
Hiroshima, Nagasaki
Hiroshima 6
august 1945
Nagasaki 9
august 1945
140.000 dead and
wounded in Hiroshima
about 60.000 dead and
wounded in Nagasaki
frozen numbers
somewhere in a distant
and ordinary summer
since then the wounded
have died, many at first, indeed
most, then fewer, but in the end
Inger Christensen (16 januari 1935 – 2 januari 2009)
De Amerikaanse schrijfster en essayiste Susan Sontag werd geboren op 16 januari 1933 in New York. Zie ook alle tags voor Susan Sontag op dit blog.
Uit: Against interpretation
“The story of the exodus from Egypt, the wandering in the desert for forty years, and the entry into the promisedland, said Philo, was really an allegory of the individual soul’s emancipation, tribulations, and final deliverance. Interpretation thus presupposes a discrepancy between the clear meaning of the text and the demands of (later) readers. It seeks to resolve that discrepancy. The situation is that for some reason a text has become unacceptable; yet it cannot be discarded. Interpretation is a radical strategy for conserving an old text, which is thought too precious to repudiate, by revamping it. The interpreter, without actually erasing or rewriting the text, is altering it. But he can’t admit to doing this. He claims to be only making it intelligible, by disclosing its true meaning. However far the interpreters alter the text (another notorious example is the Rabbinic and Christian “spiritual” interpretations of the clearly erotic Song of Songs), they must claim to be reading off a sense that is already there.
Interpretation in our own time, however, is even more complex. For the contemporary zeal for the project of interpretation is often prompted not by piety toward the troublesome text (which may conceal an aggression), but by an open aggressiveness, an overt contempt for appearances. The old style of interpretation was insistent, but respectful; it erected another meaning on top of the literal one. The modern style of interpretation excavates, and as it excavates, destroys; it digs “behind” the text, to find a sub-text which is the true one. The most celebrated and influential modern doctrines, those of Marx and Freud, actually amount to elaborate systems of hermeneutics, aggressive and impious theories of interpretation.“
Susan Sontag (16 januari 1933 – 28 december 2004
De Duitse schrijver Reinhard Jirgl werd op 16 januari 1953 in Oost-Berlijn geboren. Zie ook alle tags voor Reinhard Jirgl op dit blog.
Uit: Nichts von euch auf Erden
„Sie dienen auch zur Abschirmung gegen unerwünschte Satellitensignale; die elektronische Detektion der Kontinente ist somit weitgehend ausgeschlossen. Wälder, Gewässer (Seen und Flüsse) sowie landwirtschaftlich genutzte Flächen sind ebenfalls von dieser Imagosphäre überwölbt; so erhalten sich unterhalb dieser Membran stabile, von äußeren Klimaten weitgehend unabhängige Witterungsverhältnisse. Einige schmale, mit Lichtsignalen und Funkfeuern markierte >Schleusentore< bieten zu Land, zu Wasser und aus der Luft sowie den vom All herkommenden Flugkörpern Gelegenheit, unter die Imagosphären zu gelangen. Diese Schleusen sind zu jeder Zeit fest verschließbar.
Das Portal zum europäischen Kontinent befindet sich über dem nördlichen Atlantik, über dem Eis des Nordpols; der Landeanflug in etwa 45 Grad zum Nullmeridian erfolgt zunächst über die britischen Inseln, dann über Nordostfrankreich hin zum europäischen Kernland, denn in diesen Teilen Europas finden sich besonders viele Imagosphären verstreut. – Die Einlassschleusen für Nordamerika befinden sich ebenfalls über dem Nordpol, der Landeanflug führt sodann über die Nordregionen Kanadas hinweg auf das nordamerikanische Festland (Hauptlande- und Startplatz seit jeher in Florida). Mittelamerika weist seinen Zugang von den Bahamas her, Südamerika von der Antarktischen Halbinsel des Erdsüdpols über Feuerland. Asien hat seinen Zugang vom Indischen Ozean über Sri Lanka, wahrend Afrika, ebenfalls über den Erdsüdpol, vom Königin-Maud-Land erreichbar ist, hingegen Australien und Neuseeland ihre Einflugschleusen über Victorialand offen halten. Andere Zugänge oder transkontinentale Verbindungen existieren keine mehr.”
Reinhard Jirgl (Oost-Berlijn, 16 januari 1953)
De Amerikaanse dichter Anthony Hecht werd geboren op 16 januari 1923 in New York. Zie ook alle tags voor Anthony Hecht op dit blog.
The Feast Of Stephen
1
The coltish horseplay of the locker room,
Moist with the steam of the tiled shower stalls,
With shameless blends of civet, musk and sweat,
Loud with the cap-gun snapping of wet towels
Under the steel-ribbed cages of bare bulbs,
In some such setting of thick basement pipes
And janitorial realities
Boys for the first time frankly eye each other,
Inspect each others’ bodies at close range,
And what they see is not so much another
As a strange, possible version of themselves,
And all the sparring dance, adrenal life,
Tense, jubilant nimbleness, is but a vague,
Busy, unfocused ballet of self-love.
II
If the heart has its reasons, perhaps the body
Has its own lumbering sort of carnal spirit,
Felt in the tingling bruises of collision,
And known to captains as esprit de corps.
What is this brisk fraternity of timing,
Pivot and lobbing arc, or indirection,
Mens sana in men’s sauna, in the flush
Of health and toilets, private and corporal glee,
These fleet caroms, plies and genuflections
Before the salmon-leap, the leaping fountain
All sheathed in glistening light, flexed and alert?
From the vast echo-chamber of the gym,
Among the stumbled shouts and shrill of whistles,
The bounced basketball sound of a leather whip.
Anthony Hecht (16 januari 1923 – 20 oktober 2004)
De Australische schrijver en essayist Brian Castro werd geboren op 16 januari 1950 in Hongkong. Zie ook alle tags voor Brian Castro op dit blog.
Uit: The Bath Fugues
“Fabiana. played in a palm-court orchestra at tlte Intercontinental Hotel. to keep her lingers and her little knot of friends. Ishe said.
She seemed at the opposite pole to me. I was trying to undo all knots. If you had to describe me you would say I was a knot loosener. Dispensing with friends of the ordinary variety, only maintaining acquaintances who were tnost likely to become enemies and who could then be shed without conscience.
l acquired true solitude. The only time I l’elt lonely was when I lived on the banks of that French river with rats for company. The rats fought a lot amongst themselves. I didn’t seem to have their attention. Back in my bourgeois life people always intruded. Even barged in when I was in the toilet, like when I was sharing the flat in Newtowu with a couple who made noisy lose all day. They had a big bed and liked manacles. whips and chains. It was a construction site with vinyl; I had to use a megaphone to enforce union hours. The hippy with angel hair cooked. appeared out of nowhere. olleriug lentil soup. Accostiug me in the outside toilet one day. she suggested we practise constriction. She was twirling a little braid of rubber bands. Anyway. it’s because I liked solitude so much that l have had these seizures. escapades. repetitions.
l was saying to l-‘abiana. since I had been born to perfect my life according to my art and so much of both had already been dissipated by a failure to garner critical acclaim. llell was other people. So her silos were a godsend. I said. (I had since moved all the paintings and easels and frames into the smaller bin, which only has one window.)“
Brian Castro (Hongkong, 16 januari 1950)
De Braziliaanse schrijver, theaterproducent, talk show host, acteur, schilder en musicus José Soares werd geboren op 16 januari 1938 in Rio de Janeiro. Zie ook alle tags voor José Soares op dit blog.
Uit: Twelve Fingers: Biography of an Anarchist
“By the age of eight one can see in him the handsome man he is to become. He has inherited his mother’s dark, curly hair, his father’s green eyes and snowy white complexion.
He knows nothing of his grandfather but takes pride in his grandmother’s African blood. He becomes irritated when the clowns laugh at his statement that, inside his white body, he is as black as a Watusi prince. His lanky form and his unaffectedly elegant manners are enchanting to all. Later he would have what women call irresistible charm. He is intelligent and studious. His air of a vulnerable poet causes people to like him at first sight. He has a sole defect: stemming perhaps from the contortions undergone while still in his mother’s womb, Dimo is extremely awkward. Not even his two extra fingers prevent objects from slipping out of his hands. Despite the rigor of the intensive training to which he dedicates himself, it becomes quickly apparent that he will never be a professional in the circus. He has an innate talent for climbing the pole that supports the tent or for ascending and descending the ropes to the trapeze, but he lacks the sense of balance needed for acrobatics. An anarchist from the cradle, with his father as mentor, by the age of twelve he has read Proudhon, Bakunin, and Kropotkin. He finds Proudhon overly theoretical and Bakunin practically a conservative. He prefers Kropotkin, who resigned as secretary-general of the Russian Geographic Society in favor of anarchism. Dimitri thinks, however, that he lacks a certain boldness. His tender age notwithstanding, he favors violent methods. He dreams of eliminating all the world’s tyrants.
In 1912, Isabel is forced to give up the circus because of a dislocated vertebra. The unfortunate accident did not occur during her performance but on a picnic in the foothills of Mount Maglic. Dimitri tripped on a tree root while trying to open a bottle of wine, which flew out of his hands, hitting his mother in the lumbar region of the spine.”
José Soares (Rio de Janeiro, 16 januari 1938)
De Canadese dichter en schrijver Robert William Service werd geboren op 16 januari 1874 in Preston, Engeland. Zie ook alle tags voor Robert W. Service op dit blog.
Pavement Poet
God’s truth! these be the bitter times.
In vain I sing my sheaf of rhymes,
And hold my battered hat for dimes.
And then a copper collars me,
Barking: “It’s begging that you be;
Come on, dad; you’re in custody.”
And then the Beak looks down and says:
“Sheer doggerel I deem your lays:
I send you down for seven days.”
So for the week I won’t disturb
The peace by singing at the curb.
I don’t mind that, but oh it’s hell
To have my verse called doggerel.
Second Childhood
Some deem I’m gentle, some I’m kind:
It may be so,–I cannot say.
I know I have a simple mind
And see things in a simple way;
And like a child I love to play.
I love to toy with pretty words
And syllable them into rhyme;
To make them sing like sunny birds
In happy droves with silver chime,
In dulcet groves in summer time.
I pray, with hair more white than grey,
And second childhood coming on,
That yet with wonderment I may
See life as in its lucent dawn,
And be by beauty so beguiled
I’ll sing as sings a child.
Robert W. Service (16 januari 1874 – 11 september 1958)
Onafhankelijk van geboortedata:
De Duitse schrijver Tino Hanekamp werd geboren in 1979 in Wippra in Saksen-Anhalt. Zie ook alle tags voor Tino Hanekamp op dit blog.
Uit: So was von da
„Sogar mein Pferd wollen sie mir nehmen.
Keine Ahnung, was ich ab morgen machen werde. Habe ich Angst? Nein. Panik? Schon eher. Um genau zu sein, stehe ich kurz vorm Nervenzusammenbruch. Außerdem denke ich immer wieder an Mathilda. Mein Leben liegt in Trümmern.
Aber halt! Immer schön die Ruhe bewahren. Ich muss doch ein guter Mensch sein, tun, was die Natur von mir fordert, voll Güte und Zartgefühl.
Krieg ist schlimmer, Trottel.
Drücke fünf Aspirin in ein Glas. Wasser drauf und zusehen, wie sie vergehen. Ihr habt’s gut, ihr könnt einfach so verschwinden. Auf der Digitalanzeige des alten Radios steht 13:16. Um zwei muss ich im >Pupasch< sein, wo Rocky auf mich wartet, wenn er wartet, was man bei ihm nie wissen kann. Beschließe, mir unter der Dusche allen Schmutz aus Körper und Seele zu brennen und danach ein neues Leben zu beginnen. Aber das verdammte, verkackte, dämliche Dreckswasser ist natürlich wieder kaltkaltkalt! Warum stehen die auch alle so früh auf, am Samstag, Silvester?
Da bleibt man doch liegen, wenn man kann, und lässt das warme Wasser denen, dies brauchen. Das gebietet doch der Anstand, die allgemeine Rücksichtnahme, das man da mal drüber nachdenkt, über das warme Wasser und so. Aber nein, alle denke immer nur an sich, nur ich nicht, ich denke an sie.
Vor drei Jahren haben wir uns getrennt, vor zwei Jahren habe ich ihre Nummer gelöscht, in der Hoffnung, sie, Mathilda, endlich aus meinem Leben zu tilgen.“
Tino Hanekamp (Wippra, 1979)
Zie voor nog meer schrijvers van de 16e januari ook mijn blog van 16 januari 2016 deel 2 en eveneens deel 3.