The Netherlands, 1951
Ineke Holzhaus (Amsterdam) works as an actress and director in the theatre and makes radio-programmes about literature for Dutch National Radio Broadcasting. During many years she read the Dutch translations of poetry at International poetry festivals like Rotterdam and Maastricht. She wrote plays and radio-scripts and teaches creative-writing in the Netherlands, Belgium, England and South-Africa. She translates plays and poetry from English, German and Italian into Dutch. Books of poetry by Ineke Holzhaus: Hond in Pompeď, Tegenlicht and Elektra, bij Wagner & van Santen.
A poem about Škocjan Caves
Skocjan
Ik ging luisteren naar de rivier
hoe het met hem ging na de regen
hij bruiste zich de grot in waar we
gisteren nog in hoge kamers zwegen
achter voiles van sediment, met
onvaste tred van woorden en wijn.
Dante en Euridice liepen mee
naar het sopraangroen van de uitgang.
Nu wilde het water zijn
zonder ons
wild en alleen.
Skocjan
I went to listen to the river
how it felt after the rain
it fizzed itself into the cave where only
yesterday we were so silent in the high
chambers, behind veils of sediment
unstable from words and wine.
Dante and Euridice came along
to the soprano-green of the exit.
The water now longed to be
without us
wild and alone.