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The Poetry of Gerrit Achterberg: A Translation Problem?

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Abstract

In this chapter, Fawcett examines the case of twentieth century Dutch poet Gerrit Achterberg, whose poetry was both critically acclaimed and popular in the Dutch-speaking world, but barely known elsewhere. After examining possible reasons for this, the chapter focuses on the specific challenges of translating Achterberg’s poems, taking James Brockway’s translation story as an example. Brockway (1916–2000) perceived the centrality of form in Achterberg’s work, and understood that the formal elements of the poems could not be divorced from their effect and meaning. The chapter relates Brockway’s perceptions to the concept of iconicity, arguing that an alert response to the functioning of iconicity in a specific poem may provide a key not only to translating Achterberg’s work, but to many works that are similarly motivated.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All translations in this chapter are my own, unless otherwise indicated.

  2. 2.

    A simple Google search shows this to be the case: apart from a basic Wikipedia article on Achterberg in English, most of the “hits” on the first few pages are of Dutch websites. The US-based Poetry Foundation website, which publishes Poetry magazine, has no information on Achterberg at all, although it does include information on many non-English language poets. Germany, for example, is represented by brief introductions to twenty-six different poets. The Netherlands makes no appearance in the list of countries and regions (Poetry Foundation n.d.).

  3. 3.

    The single copy available from the Amazon website in January 2017 (search terms Achterberg / Hidden Weddings) was priced at £116.17 (Amazon 2017).

  4. 4.

    In November 2016 there were 21 copies of Rich’s Collected Early Poems listed on the COPAC site (COPAC 2016).

  5. 5.

    The US-based reader will find Wiersma’s translations available at the Library of Congress.

  6. 6.

    All the information regarding British holdings of Achterberg’s poetry in translation was found by searching on the COPAC website (2017).

  7. 7.

    I have checked the following standard works: Armstrong (2005), Brooker et al. (2010), Childs (2008), Kolocotroni et al. (1998), Levenson (2011), Lewis (2011), Nicholls (1995), Tew and Murray (2009). None of these mentions Dutch or Flemish modernism. However, Eysteinsson’s and Liska’s (2007) two-volume collection has a complete chapter on ‘Modernism(s) in Dutch Literature’ (Berg and Dorleijn 2007: 967–90).

  8. 8.

    Boyce includes two poems from this cycle in her collection: ‘Jachtopziener’ (‘Gamekeeper’) and ‘Dwingelo’ (‘Dwingelo’) (Boyce 1989: 65–6). There are also translations by P.K. King of two of the ‘Spel van de wilde jacht’ poems: ‘Huisbewaarder’ (‘Caretaker’) and ‘Mon trésor’ (‘Mon trésor’) (King 1971: 128–131).

  9. 9.

    Henceforth KB.

  10. 10.

    In addition to the discussion created by Colmjon’s two articles (2002a, b), the literary weblog De Contrabas (now defunct), also had a discussion on Achterberg’s worth as a poet, in response to an article by Huub Mous entitled ‘Een overschat dichter’ (‘An over-rated poet’) (Mous 2009). See ‘De zeer overschatte Achterberg’ (‘The extremely over-rated Achterberg’) (Contrabas 2009).

  11. 11.

    Haven’s assertion that Achterberg “lived out his life in psychiatric institutions after killing the Utrecht landlady who spurned him” (Haven 2004) isn’t absolutely accurate (see Hazeu 1989: 233–5). By 1945, Achterberg had been granted the right to live, under controlled conditions, outside the asylum, and was looked after by his former girlfriend, Cathrien van Baak, whom he married in 1946. Although the State Order remained in operation until 1955, only seven years before his death, after his marriage Achterberg’s various stays in psychiatric institutions were only of a temporary nature.

  12. 12.

    See also Davis (2001: 31) which discusses Holmes’s anecdote about his inadvertent mistake and relates this to the inevitability of the “grain of difference—or différance” which makes both poetic composition and translation possible.

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  1. Independent Scholar, Ulverston, Cumbria, UK

    Antoinette Fawcett

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  1. School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom

    Jean Boase-Beier

  2. Independent Scholar, Norwich, United Kingdom

    Lina Fisher

  3. Department of English, Tohoku Gakuin University, Sendai, Japan

    Hiroko Furukawa

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Fawcett, A. (2018). The Poetry of Gerrit Achterberg: A Translation Problem?. In: Boase-Beier, J., Fisher, L., Furukawa, H. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Literary Translation. Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75753-7_3

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