Cornelis van der Wal

Cornelis van der Wal was born in Leeuwarden in 1956. After wanderings in Groningen and Sneek he has returned to his native town. Van der Wal has published 7 poetry collections, an anthology and a novella. He is editor in chief of the digital edition and webmaster of the literary magazine Ensafh. He received the Fedde Schurer prize for his debut collection In nêst jonge magneten in 1993.

Publications
1992 – In nêst jonge magneten
1997 – Sinnestriel op it offermês
2003 – Subsydzje foar de graal
2004 – Skalder en it swurd
2005 – Zonderlinge kruising tussen aap en priester (blomlêzing, mei Nederlânske oersettingen)
2007 – Hûn oan ‘e himel
2008 – Kening Kees (novelle)
2011 – Kristus Pavlov
2016 – Wolf yn harnas

Submitted poems
No fall
The ghost and the tree

 

No fall

Boy floated on a raft down
sluggish thought; a wise frog in slime
was his guide.

Along the banks stood moulded monuments
to matter.
In the wide summer sky laughed dead the shrinking sun

and mole-blind ideas, the silver insects
that sought out his brown head, to
pollute the empty space.

The frog stranded and withered on a wish of stone
and the stream turned into a stagnant pool because
there was no fall between him and a future.

© Cornelis van der Wal
In nêst jonge magneten (Koperative Utjouwerij, 1991)
Translation: Ko Kooman