7 August 2026. What a wonderful review by Dietske Geerlings of Rozalie Hirs’s vragen naar het begin (ask about the beginning; Uitgeverij Querido, 2026), published on Tzum today!
In her review, Between heaven and earth, the rose springs from discord, Geerlings writes, among other things:
“There are few poets who, with such wholehearted commitment, give expression to ‘the space of the whole of life,’ to borrow Lucebert’s words, as Rozalie Hirs does. Whereas Lucebert ‘strives’ to do this ‘in a poetic way,’ Hirs simply does it. In one sense, she does so much like Lucebert, through ‘waters illuminated in simplicity’: her poetry flows, radiating a lightness and clarity like sunlight sparkling on water. At the same time, she is like a driven scientist who is unafraid of complexity, continually examining her subject from every possible angle, even as that subject itself is constantly changing shape.”
“To ask about the beginning, to ask where we come from, is at the same time to ask about meaning: where do we come from, and why are we here?”
Read the full review [in Dutch] on Tzum.