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Ypie Bakker was the RIXT poet of the month in August. You can read her original Frisian poems from that month here. The translation of one of them – ‘creation’ – is published here.

creation

everything was already
encapsulated within the stone

the child yet an embryo
frozen in its mother’s womb

the little girl still
fossil from a lost age

the fragile woman a lady
delicate yet forceful

they were waiting

you saw and perceived
felt and formed

hewed away hardness
smoothed out rough edges

weight became lighter
ballast became dust

you blew it away
a load fell from your shoulders
it was done

lady, girl
germ of a child
sparkle in the light


© Ypie Bakker
translation: Trevor Scarse

Janneke Spoelstra was the RIXT poet of the month in July. You can read her original Frisian poems from that month here. The translation of one of them – ‘carried us’ – is published here.

carried us

what would I
do without you,
you say

who are
we
without you


© Janneke Spoelstra
translation: Trevor Scarse

Ilse Vos was the RIXT poet of the month in June. You can read her original Frisian poems from that month here. The translation of one of them – ‘Self-interview’ – is published here.

Self-interview

Buried underneath
deep layers of endless self-interview
about the why, what and how.

I dig, have dug, delved, bury, burrow, have buried and so on.
Searching for the sound of the spade on stone
Until the point came, or better a subtle transition,
The moment when
the riddle began
to lead its own life.
I did not strike a stone.
No
reflection upon reflection is where a new world had begun
Just like water or clouds that are seen and unseen at the same time.
You can pass through.
So that you wonder whether they are truly there.
Reflections of a fictitious world in your head.
On its head.
There is no end
Of course, it will end


© Ilse Vos
translation: Trevor Scarse

Arjan Hut was the RIXT poet of the month in May. You can read his original Frisian poems from that month here. The translation of one of them – ‘Woah Black Betty’ – is published here.

Woah Black Betty

For the poem click here.

Henk Dillerop, a new addition to the RIXT collective, was the RIXT poet of the month in April. You can read his original Frisian poems from that month here. The translation of one of them – ‘form’ – is published here.

form

does emptiness have form
she asks
lying on the beach

he thinks
gets up
walks to the sea
and punches holes
in the waves

do feelings
have form as well
she asks

he thinks
and with his hands
squeezes air in between the waves

does colour
have form too

he draws her name
in curly letters
in the foam

and life

he gathers up seashells
his hands full

and love
does love have a form

he keeps still

looks at her
minutes ticking by
doesn’t move a muscle

she perceives


© Henk Dillerop
translation: Trevor Scarse

Elmar Kuiper was the RIXT poet of the month February 2023. You can read his original Frisian poems of that month here. The translation of one of them – ‘HUMAN BEING’ – is published here.

HUMAN BEING

he is clean
like a river

but slibs up at the mouth

he lets his Swiss shepherd
fly after a stick on the cinder
path

rhymes a mallard not with the man

he is fair
like a bullet

at the edge of the city he twirls
the steel for the arena, where he
will sing in canon

he’s pitch perfect
like a rock

skims across the old
canal

smooth and flat
is his word


© Elmar Kuiper
translation: Trevor Scarse

Ina Schroders-Zeeders was the RIXT poet of the month January 2023. You can read her original Frisian poems of that month here. The translation of one of them – ‘coat’ – is published here.

coat

so many old things fall out of your coat pockets:
plasters, coins
pills for tranquillity

who put them there when you weren’t looking?
or was it you
but forgot

once sleepless nights because of money
no piece of clothing contains so many secrets
as an old coat with the pepper smell of sweat and rain

nothing falls better into place
than litter
on a worn-out tile floor


© Ina Schroders-Zeeders
translation: Trevor Scarse