Selected Poems

A collection of the poetry by the Netherlands' most famous and celebrated poet, this one being the second volume in the two-book series The Essential Gorter. Fortunately, his work is having a revival of interest and now we have a new English translation we can enjoy too.

The beautiful cover of this book, with its bright but gentle watercolours, reflect Gorter's work. The poems in the first section (known as the 'sensitivist' verses) are sensuous and in tune with the flow of nature, with vivid imagery describing the landscape in a true creative and emotive manner. Romance, leading to eroctic imagery and intensity, the format of the poems doesn't follow the traditional forms of structure but seem to evolve along with his work.

The final section of the book moves to Gorter's 'Revolution' poems, which are centred around the political European landscape of the mid twentieth century, with talk of workers and red flags, depicted so well in the colour of the sun on the cover. There is also a reference to the revolutionary socialist, Rosa Luxemburg.

This is poetry at its most evocative and sublime. How can I have missed this wonderful writer? Anyone who appreciates the written word should discover Herman Gorter, the visionary and poet.

“O let me say in silence that I love you,
and prove to you in silence that I love you.”

The introduction starts out highlighting some of the difficulties of translating Gorter, for example, his penchant for making changes to a lot of words in his own language which are hard to carry over into English.

While the longer ones were beyond me most of the time (I couldn’t get into them), the translator Haft was able to capture the beauty of Gorter in the smaller ones perfectly,

"Like the glance
of a star
on a lake:
her dance."

You can't conjure up an image more beautiful than that.

"After the day that never answers hunger
luckily there's night, the haven.
True, no better does night bring
the emptiness-abating thing
but since I'm one with night's cool,
because she's empty I forget
that I am too."


Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this!

Selected Poems by Herman Gorter (translated by Lloyd Haft) is a collection of poetry from The Netherlands greatest poet, and presented for the first time in English. Gorter was a Dutch poet and socialist. He was a leading member of the Tachtigers, a highly influential group of Dutch writers who worked together in Amsterdam in the 1880s, centered on De Nieuwe Gids. Haft is an American-born Dutch poet, translator, and sinologist. He has been living in the Netherlands since 1968. Haft was educated at Harvard College and Leiden University.

This is a bit like an archeologist discovering a new civilization or physicist discovering a new particle. Gorter has been mostly hid from the non- Dutch world until recently. The reason for his obscurity is because of the language he wrote. The Dutch language is filled with words that have multiple meanings (that can play on each other) and don't readily translate into English. If that is not difficult enough Gorter also liked to distort his own language to make things fit. Haft explains this in great detail in the introduction to the poems. He also tries to capture the original intent of the poems at the price of rhythm schemes. Haft also gets creative with English words that actually expand their meaning.

Verses (1890). The second section is from his political work Pan. The final section in titled Lyrics. Verses provides a welcoming introduction to Gorter's style of poetry. The words paint a complex picture of the poet's experience. Here, the reader, will see the difficulty of the task that Haft faced in this undertaking. Like Gorter, Haft had to become creative with his language. The result amazing. Haft pulls out archaic words and when that fails, he makes a few of his own -- clingleafed up and down, her golden eyes of daydawning, and the twigtrees draw back to their meager leaning. The newly coined words are poetic in themselves.

Gorter is also a man of themes. The word gold (as a metal or meaning precious) is used fifty-six times in the collection. Eyes are also used fifty-six times in the collection. The "all of All" appears twenty-five times in the collection, and has several forms but mostly it is light or the divine.

Someday you'll be one
with the all of All,
your golden limbs extending through the knowledges of all the
shores….

This is a collection of poetry that the translator must be given a great deal of credit. It was said translating Gorter wasn't difficult, it was impossible. Gorter's words of nature and self are incredible and relayed to the reader in what must be a near perfect experience. When Gorter turns to Marxism the change is as sudden as a gunshot:

You died, And why? because you were murdered by capital
But by the workers
Who left you alone with your attackers.

Gorter also has a softer side for revolution. In a long four-part poem Rosa Luxembourg is Beatified in verse that rivals the Assumption of Mary. For poetry lovers looking to discover something new that rivals the greats of the past look to Gorter.

Wow this is some extremely powerful excellent poetry. I loved every single second of it. The poetry in this book so powerful and intense I actually forgot to breathe. It was that breathe taking. I love poetry but had never heard of this Dutch poet but I am definitely thankful for this book. For years I have been reading poetry books of new or lesser known poets trying to find words that contain power, are emotive and are rhythmical. And this poet had all three, finally I have found one and I can't wait to read more. I must say the translater of this book has done a magnificent job. Firstly explaining the difficulties of translating from Dutch to English and the difficulties posed by the poets love of creating made up words to continue the rhythmical flow of the poems. I loved the brief history of the poets life and did an excellent job of introducing the poets work. The poems in this book mainly evolve around the poets love for his women yes he had two and the poetry can get a little naughty at times. But the words used and the emotions behind them are truly breathe taking. Herman Gorter poetry dates from the late 1800's through to the early 1900's and this book contains snippets of his many volumes of his works. His poetry must of been causing plenty of controversy in these times which makes it all the more interesting to read.
I will definitely be looking out for more works by this poet as I can't wait to read more.
I truly recommend this book to all who love emotive poetry and can find the power held within each verse.
The highest praise goes out to the author/translater and publishers for bringing us this magnificent, stunning , emotive and empowering collection of poetry to light it's spectacular.
The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK and my blog https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/selected-poems-by-herman-gorter-translated-by-lioyd-haft-arimei-books-5-stars

Under the name ladyreading365 or lady Reading365 or ladyc reading

✨Book Review ✨

Selected Poems of Herman Gorter is The essential Gorter collection, Vol - II and is a translation work of Lloyd Haft. This translation work covers many poems from Gorter's major work like 'Pan', 'Verses' and 'Lyrics'.

Herman Gorter was one of the most prolific dutch poets and I believe remains largely unknown among people due to no decent exposure.

He had an eccentric way of writing poems of vivid imagery largely portraying passion, beauty, soul and love and many other elements of nature by making up new words that would be completely open to the readers for interpretation and understanding which adds beauty to all of his poems.

That is the sole reason why translating his poems is a hefty work and no wonder Mr Haft has done an outstanding job keeping the subtle nuances of his poem intact.

There are many other translated works of Gorter by other translators but I believe Mr Haft's translations will remain my favourite.

The poems are soul soothing.
Some of you may not understand his poems but fret not, you can interpret it in your own way and enjoy it's beauty.

His poem is hauntingly beautiful and has this absurd yet heart touching quality to it.

Even if you finish reading the book, the poems will linger on in your mind like the musky smell of earth, like wet soil underneath your feet, like the floral tang and the blue tint of the summer sky.

This is undoubtedly one of my most favourite collection of poems and I'm glad I have finally found Herman Gorter. I'll continue to read his works.

Thank you @netgalley and Arimei books for providing me with an e-ARC of this book.