Sunday 12 November 2017

A translation of Boutens' 'Leeuwerik'




1 comment:

John Irons said...

P.C. Boutens (1870-1943) is hardly a much-read poet in the Netherlands. His poetry is often esoteric, his language over-poetic, precious even. But his poems are technically highly polished constructions that have a pared-down, stripped feeling to them. This poem was first published in December 1909 in De Gids, then in the collection Carmina (1912). He is dealing with one of his favourite themes, his imagery vertical and in-between, as is typical of his poetry of the preceding decade.