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02 October 2014

Poetry Thursday - in Amsterdam public library

In the entrance to the central library, above the information desk (if I remember right), are relevant poems by the Stadsdichter from recent years -
Robert Anker 2008, The Book
Mustafa Stitou, 2009, Temple (to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the public library)
F. Starik, 2011 (his Dienstbericht isn't among the list of his poems on the Amsterdam city poets site)
Menno Wigman, 2012, The Last Page

Not shown in my photo is the poem by the first holder of the post, Adriaan Jaeggi, who died in 2008. Click on the photo to enlarge, if you read Dutch; if not, click on the poem titles listed above and get an English translation of some sort, courtesy of Google ... it will then be up to you to fill in the gaps. (To see what's possible with translations from Dutch to English, have a look at the David Read Poetry Translation Prize winners - many translations of each poem are given; a different poem is set each year.)

The tradition of having a "village poet" started in the Netherlands in Venlo in 1993 - a local poet laureate. Amsterdam's current Stadsdicter is Anna Enquist.


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