CHANGE OF SEASONS
You say warmth is forever
as we lie in the grass
that no longer feels like the soil
of our garden
Still I remember cold days
words like gunshots
hail on drained ice rinks
grandpa on skates, grandpa in a casket
Still I remember moving boxes
photos in a frame just as ugly
as the disease the people in question
had died of
But even if sorrow finds its way
summer will come, you say
Is warmth forever
even if the skin isn’t tangible
Dutch poem: Iris Dicke
Iris Dicke (Leeuwarden, 2005) has been following writing lessons with the Jonge Schrijvers (Young Writers) at Explore the North and Meeuw Jonge Theatre Makers since 2018. It was through this that she wrote for productions such as Oerol (2020/2022), Toen Rijst Nog Jong Was (‘When Rice Was Young’ 2021) and Het Arrivacomplot (‘The Arriva Complot’ 2022). In May 2022 she debuted with her solo performance Lieve Helena (‘Dear Helena’) with Toiletgebouwroutine (‘Sanitary Block Routine’) as part of BROEI. Up until February 2023, Iris took lessons at the youth theatre school Meeuw and played in various productions. As part of the Kultuer Kollektyf talent development programme Tweespraak, she is currently working on her second solo performance, Gepiekt op de middelbare school (‘Peaked At High School’). She will start studying at drama school in Arnhem in September 2023.
Frisian translation: Syds Wiersma
Being a film archivist in his daily life, for Syds Wiersma (1963) poetry is a way to process creatively the images which pass before his eyes every day. After Wiersma’s first poetry collection Alles wat ik net betinke woe (1992), and a time-out of almost 25 years, he published four volumes of poetry in the last years: Raffelwjok (2016), the bilingual collection Twintig liefdes een Saudade/Tweintich leafdes in Saudade(2017), Lân sûnder Ljurk (2019; ‘Land without Lark’) and Skaadhûn (2022).
English translation: David McKay
David McKay is a prize-winning Dutch-English translator who has also contributed to an anthology of Frisian literature. He is particularly known for his translations of Stefan Hertmans and classic Dutch authors such as Multatuli (with Ina Rilke), J. Slauerhoff and Anton de Kom. His translation of the play The Wetsuitman by Freek Mariën has been performed numerous times in England and America and is on the 2023 Eurodram selection of texts. He is currently working on a translation of The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje.
Image: Janine van Zeeland
Janine van Zeeland (1956) started painting in her studio snuggled in the fields of north-east Friesland after a career as a lecturer in visual arts and art history. Field and farm animals are an inexhaustible source of inspiration for her. Either on their own or interacting with each other, in unexpected poses or combinations and always in the tranquillity and vastness of the polder landscape. Working with the poet Eppie Dam, she created the book Een dier is ook maar een mens (An animal is only human too) in 2021, in which Dam wrote poems for 42 of Janine’s works. She paints mainly with oil on canvas.