7 June 2021. Delighted to have won the Public Choice Award Karel van de Woestijne 2020. Anneke Brassinga won the jury prize for her book ‘verborgen tuinen’ (De Bezige Bij, 2019). Above is a photo taken during the award cerremony at Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium, on 6 June 2021.
Special thanks to the jury of the Karel van de Woestijne Poetry Prize, who nominated my book verdere bijzonderheden (further particulars; Singel Uitgeverijen| Uitgeverij Querido, Amsterdam, 2017). And to Michaël Snitker for the integral book design, also featured in the video. To the Formalist Quartet, whose performance of my string quartet ‘Zenit’ (2010) is part of the video soundtrack. To those who have voted for the poem ‘van roos tot enig glaswerk’, selected from the book: thank you very much!
Here is the video I devised at invitation of the jury. Below is the English translation of the poem by Vivien D. Glass. Happy reading, viewing, listening!
from rose to some glassware
who drinks from you, flute glass, your colourless cup on a winged aquamarine stem
bent in a figure of eight, with wings on either side, like an angel, bird,
on a disc-shaped foot with a turned-up edge, pontil mark – rules between heaven
and earth, afterlife, words? who drinks beer from you like water,
cylindrical beaker – aquamarine through and through, with a punt base,
protruding rim – next to a breakfast of herring, bread? who sleeps it off
after your life – blown into a conical goblet on a ribbed stem,
winged and standing on a disc-shaped foot, toothless base
has briefly glowed orange-red? who drinks from you – cylindrical colourless glass,
with your ribbed rounded base – before an earthly or fiery return to dust?
who refrains from drinking – goblet, the slightly raised base on blackberry prunt feet,
your upper part and rim wrapped in aquamarine threads or voluptuously
pouting knobbly relief – to gaze at you? will your shards –
indifferent beaker, stem glass, cup, bowl with a cross or slanting ribs,
club-shaped beaker, Roemer of the cabbage stalk type – in the rain, rubbish
cesspool, underground well – golden-ager, always be translucent?
©2017 Rozalie Hirs, Uitgeverij Querido
©2020 English translation: Vivien D. Glass