“Once more, in this collection Hirs proves that she can create a play of poetic language like nobody else. (…) Hirs’s ingenious tour de force stands right in the twenty-first century.” (Helena Van Praet, De Reactor)

“Departing from this moment of receptivity, Hirs embarks on a surprising and overwhelming exploration of language, time, space, humanity, nature, perception, memory.” (Anne ter Beek, Awater)

“The new collection is titled oneindige zin, and all meanings of the word ‘zin’ apply. This poetry is sensual, has an appetite for enjoyment and is looking for meaning, but can also be read as one unending complete sentence without punctuation.” (Piet Gerbrandy, Poëziekrant).

“The title of the section ‘de magie van een mogelijk heden’, too, is very meaningful, as there are many possibilities [‘mogelijkheden’] in language, but all those lingual constructions will always again form a possible present: the moment of writing, the moment of reading, the moment of listening.” (Dietske Geerlings, Tzum)

“It pays to read these poems out loud, because then the continuous play with sonic and verbal associations and contrasts comes into focus all the more. (…) Reinforced by alliterations and assonances, a composed, dazzling fabric of language unfolds.” (Anne ter Beek, Awater)

“Often, the poet makes use of a narrative style full of imagery, which helps a tentative reading. Language smoothly flows onward by way of a play of rhythm and sound.” (Pauliene Kruithof, Friesch Dagblad)

“That way, Rozalie Hirs’s infinite sense is connected to infinite being, which keeps on flowing after our death. Hirs captures bits of this stream in her poetry and renders the heartbeat of language audible and palpable, constantly appealing to the reader to co-create an imaginary world in which poet and reader fleetingly coincide in language.” (Dietske Geerlings, Tzum)(

“Hirs has managed to push poetry beyond language without leaving it entirely and that is an impressive achievement.” (Anne ter Beek, Awater)

“In the work of Rozalie Hirs, poetry and music flow into one another in a natural manner. (…) Music full of glimmering sonic poetry, and a poetry that sings beyond the sentence.” (Mark van de Voort, VPRO Gids)

7 October 2021. In her seventh Dutch poetry book oneindige zin (infinite sense, 2021), Rozalie Hirs travels through the fluid language of inner worlds, spilling over into outer ones. From the imagination and the dream to the house, the garden, the city, the woods, the internet, and the universe. How can an open syntax lead to new poetic structures and meanings? By reaching for its ultimate possibilities, Hirs declares her love for language. Together with the cyclical nature of day and night, seasons, tides, and shapes of the moon, infinite sense celebrates life, dancing, singing.

infinite sense (2021), the seventh Dutch-language collection of poetry by Rozalie Hirs, will be published on October 8, 2021 by Singeluitgeverijen | Uitgeverij Querido. The book design is by Michaël Snitker.

Rozalie Hirs (1965) is a poet and composer. She previously has published six collections of poetry with Querido, from Locus (1998) to further particulars (2017), and five collections in other languages, including her multilingual manifesto gestammelte werke (2017) with the renowned publishing house kookbooks, Berlin.

content

1. poems
1.1. put on your nakedness
1.2. hand in hand [1]

2. events

3. poetry and music
3.1 hand in hand (2020)
3.2 artemis (2022)

poems

put on your nakedness

open your eyes in a state of innocence put on your nakedness
aware of the doubts in your mind not simply dismissed

ever more supernatural sheath of light foreboding
lustrous future heralded exists only in luminosity you see

opening unnoticed one’s own naked bearer of darkness
then as intangible as a single unexpected gift or unforeseen

loss temporarily becoming an incident always anticipated
nature that has wrapped this act of mercy in truth to complete it

dogged guardian of life is neither essence nor form
but genesis as true infinity possible for every person

as individually manageable as inseparable always findable
signature of our nature that ever new unabashed

and amazing bodily strength freely exposed and loved
flesh against the spirit longs for the other

so make visible gestures targeted action movements
elegantly falling in situ manifesto of freedom

capturing its contents knowing indeed the possible even
when there is none left today and today is never done

hand in hand

[1]

kiss me with your kisses the kisses of your lips your breath poured forth
name of the beloved that spreads so naturally as beloved as you are

take me with you now quickly let us go far far away hand in hand
breaking into song so overjoyed his songs shatter rocks then conjure again

paradisical in the beginning the earth her celestial clouds with the speed
of birds lightness of children a blossoming in the fire of the sun

in the thunderfall unpronounceable indescribable impossible to
express covering the entire face like freckles life is death again

and death life again an endearing blue and ash grey both
the way I found you the most beautiful yes you are most beautiful

in the afternoon in our bed a herbaceous green between the cedars
the corners of our house under a roof of spruce stars in the night

events

book tour
*
10 October 2021, 15:00 CET
interview by Marcel Möring
poetry reading, booklaunch, Q & A, book signing
Boekhandel Donner
Coolsingel 129, 3012 AG Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands

*
21 October 2021, 19:00 CET)
lecture by Thomas Möhlmann
poetry reading, book launch, Q & A, book signing, reception
Athenaeum boekhandel
Spui 14, 1012 XA Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands

*
23 October 2021, 11:00 CET
interview by Ingmar Heytze
poetry reading, booklaunch, Q & A, book signing
Bilthovense Boekhandel
Julianalaan 1, 3722 GA Bilthoven, Utrecht, The Netherlands

*
18 November 2021, 17:30 CET
interview by Wim van Til
poetry reading, booklaunch, Q & A, book signing
Poëziecentrum Nederland in collaboration with Boekhandel Roelants
Openbare Bibliotheek Nijmegen, Mariënburg 29, 6511 PS Nijmegen, Gelderland, The Netherlands

*
Spring 2022 (date, time TBA)
lecture, workshop, poetry reading, Q & A, book signing
De Drvkkerij in collaboration with Hogeschool Zeeland
Markt 51, 4331 LK Middelburg, Zeeland, The Netherlands

poetry and music

hand in hand (2020)

Rozalie Hirs composed hand in hand (2020) for soprano and string quartet, based on her own poetry, written in German. This commission from Kulturkreis für Neue Musik Heilbronn is inspired on the life and ideas of the German poet Hölderlin. The world premiere takes place on his two-hundred-and-fiftieth birthday, a day later followed by a performance next to his birthhouse in Lauffen am Neckar. The performers are Sonar Quartett and Maraile Lichdi (soprano). hand in hand (2020) is pubished by Deuss Music.

artemis (2022)

artemis (2022) by Rozalie Hirs is a composition, based on her own poetry, commissioned Donaueschingen Festival. The soprano Keren Motseri performs its world premiere together with ensemble ascolta on 15 October 2022 during Donaueschingen Festival, Germany.

Artemis is the archetype of a god who lives in nature and expresses gender fluidity, for she is a female god with “masculine” traits like the love of freedom, courage, independence, and autonomy. The singer Keren Motseri embodies Artemis while the Ensemble Ascolta, with its electric guitar, two percussionists, and piano, suggests a band-like quirkiness, with melodic and microtonal inflexions of the trumpet, trombone, and cello.

The poetry for artemis was selected by the composer from her poetry book oneindige zin (infinite sense; Amsterdam: Singel Uitgeverijen|Uitgeverij Querido, 2021), specifically from the cycle magie van een mogelijk heden, that the poet also devised in parallel versions in two other languages, English and German, as presence of a possible magic, and magie der möglichen gegenwart respectively. The poetry cycle was written during the pandemic. For artemis Hirs chose five poems from the German cycle [2, 5, 9, 10, 11].

The poems magie der möglichen gegenwart start, autobiographically, with the struggle of being born. They then treat life and its possibilities, gifts, losses, and a multitude of feelings. The vocal lines have been kept relatively simple, especially when compared to earlier vocal works by Hirs, yet in their seeming simplicity remind of her recent hand in hand (2020), commissioned by Kulturkreis für Neue Musik Heilbronn. The spoken passage (including a fully transcribed speech-melody of the poet-composer) is reminiscent of her poetry and music cycle dreams of airs (2017/18), performed by the Spectra Ensemble, Belgium, and the Athelas Sinfonietta, Denmark.

With special thanks to Stefan Wieczorek and Paul Vincent for their editorial comments on all poems, either in German and English, to Ira Wilhelm for her comments on the second poem, and to Christoph Hamann for his comments on the last one just before its publication in the literary magazine die horen (Zeitschrift für Literatur, Kunst und Kritik; Band 286, 67. Jahrgang 2022. Wallstein Verlag) as a tribute to the late poet Barbara Köhler (1959-2021).

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