I cycle to the local shopping center in the rain. My elderly next-door neighbor is there, entering the grocery store at the same time. I wave and greet him with a smile. He looks confused, then scared, then embarrassed, and says, “Are you my neighbor? I don’t recognize faces anymore.” “Yes, it’s me,” I say, giving him a handbasket. “It doesn’t matter. I recognize you.” We both laugh a little.
I feel quite lucky to work for publishers in multiple languages, but when I have a text intensive piece like this spread from Vrijheid [Freedom], some of the meaning gets lost without translation. So here’s my Dutch to English translations of these stirring poems. Please note: I’m neither a professional nor an official translator, but I’d like to share more of this beauty with my English-speaking audience. Free as a
The Stillness Between Triptych Artist Statement “The Stillness Between” grew out of an urge to confront an internal conflict – my effort to balance my roles as an artist and a mom. As an artist and an introvert, I’m most fulfilled when I carve out time by myself to create. Sequestering myself away in my studio feels selfish, especially when the hours I invest don’t always lead directly to a
In Dutch, the word for voice and vote are one and the same. I’ve thought about this as I’ve silently watched current events change the landscape of the world I thought I knew. Brexit in particular has left me feeling powerless. I live in the Netherlands as the spouse of a British citizen and personally had no vote in this political shifting of tectonic plates. My husband surprisingly also had