Visual art by Wim Biewenga enhances C. Buddingh’s poem, even for non-Dutch speakers.
It’s dreary outside. That walk or trip to the gym can wait. Let’s get inspired. Here’s a poem called Kooitje from C. Buddingh. It’s in Dutch, I got it from the book Een gedicht is nooit genoeg (One poem is never enough), published by Plint a Dutch organisation paring poems with visual art.
This is the translation:
Little cage
beautiful is a little cage
with a canary in it
very beautiful also a little cage
with a parakeet in it
with a blackbird in it, with a hummingbird in it,
a lettuce finch* in it, a bunch of carrots in it,
marble blocks, a glass of water in it
but the most beautiful of all actually is
a little cage with nothing in it
*lettuce finch is the literal translation of slavink, it's not a bird but ‘slavink’ is a kind of meatball wrapped in bacon that you can buy this at the butcher’s.
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