Hutchman, Laurence
Laurence, die in zijn jeugd enige jaren in Den Haag heeft gewoond, heeft me via Linkedin benaderd met het verzoek enige van zijn gedichten te vertalen ten behoeve van the Dutch Canadian newspaper Nederlandse Courante.
Hij schrijft:
Your translations of my poems (along with the beautiful accompanying art work) look excellent. I read two of the translations, "Rainer Maria Rilke," and "Caféterras big nacht" to Eva over breakfast. She enjoyed them, although when I was reading them,it reminded me a bit of when I read Chaucer to my students. I don't have the opportunity to speak Dutch often. I really savoured the texture, the rhythm, the sounds of the words, the particular feeling of them which seems mysterious yet familiar. I loved reading the line form the Rilke poem, "dat zich ontvouwde onder de vleugels van je stille, trillende oogleden"--beautiful sounds in this line.
My poems have been translated into eight languages, but these touch me (even more than French) because they are in Dutch and you have translated them so appropriately.
Laurence Hutchman, poet and professor, was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1948. He has published eleven books, nine books of poetry including Foreign National, Emery, Beyond Borders, Selected Poems, and Reading the Water. He has also co-edited Coastlines: The Poetry of Atlantic Canada and edited In the Writers’ Words: Conversations with Eight Canadian Poets.
Translations here are from his latest book of poems: Personal Encounters.
He grew up in north Toronto in the Emery area. He has taught at a number of universities including Concordia University, the University of Alberta, the University of Western Ontario, and the Université de Moncton from which he retired in 2013. In the summer of 2001 and 2002 he gave creative writing workshops in Beijing, China. From 1986-89 he served as Quebec Representative of the League of Canadian Poets and from 1992-94 served as the New Brunswick/Prince Edward Island representative. He was President of the New Brunswick Writers’ Federation from 2000-2002. He has given more than three hundred readings in Canada, the United States, Bulgaria, China, and Ireland. He lives with the artist, Eva Kolacz in Oakville.