POETRY
INTERNATIONAL 1994
(1st draft) Maureen
Hurley
Holland's
enormously successful Poetry International festival is the cultural highlight
of Rotterdam—a futuristic concrete city known for its shipyards and little
else. Razed to the ground by the Nazis in 1940, the city completely rebuilt
itself from the rubble; some say it's culturally brain-dead. It's the largest
industrial port in the world. In 1968, there wasn't much happening: no TV or
radio stations, no publishing houses—in short, no culture. There still isn't
much to see in Rotterdam today, and little to distinguish it from any other
modern city if it hadn't been for a ship of fools who decided to declare verbal
warfare on Rotterdam's lack of culture by hurling poems at it.
“WWII was
long over, it was obvious something had to be done,” says Martin Mooij, the
director of Poetry International. According to Mooij, the budding Rotterdam
Arts Council invited him to become their director of literature. His job, to
develop a literary community, was a bit like sending Don Quixote out with oars
to joust with windmills. The 25-year-old organization has spawned other
innovative projects and events besides the readings: a Dutch and Italian poetry
exchange, translation workshops, a poetry archives and documentation center,
putting pressure on repressive governments to release incarcerated poets,
painting lines of poetry on garbage trucks. . .
Yes, painting
lines of poetry on garbage trucks. . . It's an odd ark indeed when all 400 of
Rotterdam's municipal garbage trucks flaunt lines of poetry: “Good morning
beauty,” and “Always be clean so that the air will be clean.” Mooij explains,
“One was the title of a book, and the other, a line from Rafael Oberti.
Sometimes I just get crazy ideas for publicity. Rotterdam gets 30 to 40 new
trucks a year. That's 30 to 40 more poets whose work gets read. At this point,
I know everything about the cleaning service.”
Holland's
second most important city, Rotterdam, has put the Netherlands on both the
shipping and the poetry map. Amsterdam is the capitol of the Netherlands; both
cities support one million inhabitants. (For those of you a bit shaky on
geography, think Dutch: wooden shoes, Edam and Gouda cheese, tulips, windmills
and canals: sorry, the story of the little boy Hans Brinker with his finger in
the dyke is an American invention. I'll skip the historical legacies we owe to
the Dutch: the pilgrim fathers, and New York nee Nieuwe Amsterdam, Waal
Straat, Haarlem. . .)
Since 1970,
over 1000 poets from all over the world have boarded Rotterdam's gangplanks to
participate in the annual ten-day festival held during the third and fourth
weeks of June. For many poets from Holland and Flanders, the festival offers a
unique opportunity to read with poets of international repute. Past luminaries
include the European poets: Herbert Zbigniew of Poland, Vasko Popa of
Yugoslavia, Miroslav Holub of Czechoslovakia, Lar Gustafsson of Sweden, Gunther
Grass of Germany, Seamus Heaney of Ireland; The Russians: Bella Akhmadulina,
Andrei Voznesenski, Yosef Trotsky; poets from the Americas: Allen Ginsberg,
Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Octavio Paz of Mexico, Pablo Neruda of Chile;
from the Middle East: Yehuda Amichi of Israel; and Randra from Indonesia.
Poetry
International's focus is on the situation of poetry in the Western World,
Eastern Europe, China, Africa, and the Third World. Each festival focuses on a
particular region, or is dedicated to a certain language—Russian, Hebrew,
African. The 1992 Poetry International event was on China, last year’s1993
festival featured Latin American poets. “Everywhere, all of us here in the
Netherlands—we think we are the center, or the heart of the world,” chuckles
Mooij self-patronizingly.
The idea of
“world poetry” began by accident in 1976, when Mooij was secretary of the
literary department of the Rotterdam Arts Council. “Someone said 'Why don't you
poets go and read at the statue of the poet, Tollen in the park.' We tried it
on a Sunday afternoon. What we didn't know is that the immigrant workers—from
Tunisia, Morocco, Antilles, Indonesia, Suriname—all went to the park.” Some
80-to 90,000 people came to see to poets, musicians, and dancers perform. “The
event was highly appreciated; it became increasingly clear for people to hear
poetry in their own languages,” says Mooij. “Prose is more difficult than
poetry; it's easier to bring people together with poetry—it's the most intimate
center of the human being.”
In the West,
it's considered a problem if no one reads a poet's work, versus the other
extreme of giving one's life up for the sake of poetry. “The most important
reason for Poetry International is to create a forum for the human voice
suppressed in so many ways. It brings poets from both extremes together to
meet, hear and read each other's work. We're in a comfortable position to be
forum. We are completely neutral, we don't speak about politics. A Government of the Tongue,” says
Mooij. “We give people the opportunity to express themselves and find out
what's going on in the world of language.” Mooij quickly pointed out that poets
are invited on the merit of their work, not because they're the privileged
ministers of culture, etc. Mooij said “At first we asked local poets who should
be invited. Now an international advisory board selects the poets.”
“We became
our own foundation in 1980.” Poetry International is made possible by public
funding through the Minister of Culture, the Municipality of Rotterdam, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, several Dutch foundations, and an anonymous
American donor. Not all events take place in Rotterdam: “Poetry on the
Road,”brings extra programs into other Dutch cities; at the end of June one
event will take place in Enschede, a town near the German border.”
Poetry
International cooperates with other poetry festivals worldwide: San Francisco,
Toronto, China, Senegal, Russia, and Jerusalem. “We have a good networking
system.” A new project Mooij would like to see in place is an international
clearing-house style newsletter for his contacts in other countries.
We in the
West tend to forget the high price poets in repressive societies may pay for
igniting the green fuse of their “varied and sullen craft.” Sometimes invited
poets can't participate in the festival because they are in prison, or have
problems with their government getting a visa, or passport, etc. Through the
attentions of Poetry International, many poets have gained their freedom. “In
the beginning I didn't believe in giving out poetry awards, but we do give
awards to prosecuted poets.” Says Mooij, “It began as a fluke. I don't know
exactly how it happened, but I'd published some Turkish children's books, and I
spoke about an imprisoned poet, Nevzat Celik; the editor promised to write to
some official, and the poet was set free!”
“We cooperate
closely with PEN International, and the Index on Censorship.” So far,14 poets
have been awarded
what's it called?
WHEN?? Since then, 12
poets have been freed. From Africa, Breyten Breytenbach, Moroccan poet
Abdellativ Laabi, Song Lin of China, now residing in Paris, and South Korean
Papkno Hae who's been condemned to prison. Mooij hopes Hae will be freed soon.
Some poets
may be able to leave their country, but the price is high; to return is an act
of madness. Such is the case of Chinese poet Duo Duo whom Mooij met at a
literary party in Beijing in 1988. The University of Leiden translated his
work, and he was invited to the festival. Meanwhile, because of Tianennmen
Square, no one was allowed to leave the country. A fortuitous accident, Mooij's
secretary sent the airline ticket to the wrong place, to the airport desk, not
to the Netherlands Embassy. Duo Duo picked up his ticket and left for London
where journalists interviewed him about the massacre; he found couldn't go back
to China. In 1992 he was a lecturer and taught poetry workshops at the
University of Leiden under the auspices of the Prince Bernhard Fund. During his
tenure, Duo Duo quickly branched out and published plays, essays in newspapers,
and filmscripts for Dutch television. In 1993, Bei Dao was also awarded the
prestigeous post.
Bei Dao is in the same predicament. He
was invited to the west in 1985, the first year he was allowed to travel to the
Netherlands. At a 1989 PEN Congress, Bei Dao was chosen as the guest of honor,
which angered an official representative of Chinese branch of PEN, making it
impossible for Bei Dao to return. “He is a important writer,” Mooij hopes he
will find his own place here; “He has problems getting published in his own
country.” He will also teach workshops at the University of Leiden next Fall.
The one-year writer in residence lecturships are made possible by businessmen,
and the Prince Bernard Foundation (named for the father of Dutch Queen Beatrix)
According to
Mooij, some prominent Dutch and Flemish poets include Belgian poet Hugo Claus,
and Dutch poets Gerrit Rouwenaar, Remco Campert, psychatrist Rutger Kopland, J.
Bernlef, the religiously inspired Ida Gerhardt, Leo Vroman, Bert Schierbeek,
Jules Deelder, a performance artist, and poet-playright Judith Herzberg. Herzberg
seemed to be the most active with numerous readings, lectures, films,
children's plays, etc. Past criticism of Poetry International includes comments
such as: most of the poets seem to
be from the 60-something crowd (with the exception of Deelder.) “Poets of a
certain age. . . Some of the forever-voices tha have always been there,”
grumbled one Amsterdam poet. “What's missing are the poets from 30- to
40-year-old bracket.” A lively counter festival featuring Beat poetry and jazz with
Allan Ginsburg, Wanda Coleman and others, was simultaneously held at neighboring
city, The Hague.
Though
numerous writers are translated into Dutch—over one-quarter of all books
published in Holland are translations—it's difficult for many Dutch writers to
get into print. Poetry International offers selected Dutch poets international
exposure.
Certainly it
could be said the majority of the poets attending the 1993 Poetry International
festival were of a certain age, but the line-up included luminaries Miroslav
Holub (Czech Republic), Hugo Claus, (Belgium) Seamus Heaney (Ireland), Ilya
Kutek, Dmitri Prigov (Russia), Breyten Breytenbach (South Africa), Homero
Aradjis (Mexico) Josef Brodsky, Charles Simic (USA),
Remco
Campert, Leo Vroman, Bert Schierbeek, Judith Herzberg, Anne Vetger, Maria van Dahlen (Holland)—women poets are
not equally represented.
Charles Simic
used to teach at Sonoma State interview tidbits...
The Night
Mayor of Rotterdam Jules Deelder performed at the pre-festival event
Mooij sees
his role as a “(dis)organizer, not a writer. This is a beautiful country with a
good social system that made Poetry International possible, However there's the
other side. I have to stop work at 62, I'd like to stay on a long time. . .”
And as the upcoming 25th anniversary of Poetry International approaches, Mooij
asks, “What is our future? Where are we going?”