Henk Nijp was RIXT Poet of the Month June 2022. You can read his original Frisian poems of that month here. The translation of one of them – ‘Nylân’ – is published here.
Nylân there I stood, for the first time towering high above everything I could even see far beyond the tracks the scorching sun beneath the tiles, the restless water the howling others the first steps easy-peasy halfway bit slower higher at the top the wet concrete and the jitters the eroding blue of the iron the rough plank underneath my feet doubt setting in behind me the bellowers “come on, hurry up…!” careful steps forward then hesitation and standstill, the rolling depths no way back into the void, arms flailing the crash and the bubbles then the howling others once more © Henk Nijp translation: Trevor Scarse