Lloyd Haft Blog 漢樂逸: August 2012

Brief bio sketch

Lloyd Haft (1946- ) was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin USA and lived as a boy in Wisconsin, Louisiana and Kansas. In 1968 he graduated from Harvard College and went to Leiden, The Netherlands for graduate study in Chinese (M. A. 1973, Ph. D. 1981). From 1973 to 2004 he taught Chinese language and literature, mostly poetry, at Leiden. His sinological publications include Pien Chih-lin: A Study in Modern Chinese Poetry (1983/2011; published in Chinese translation as 发现卞之琳: 一位西方学者的探索之旅 in 2010) and A Guide to Chinese Literature (with Wilt Idema, 1997). His liberal modern Dutch reading of Laozi's Daode jing was published as Lau-tze's vele wegen by Synthese in September 2017. His newest books in English are translations: Herman Gorter: Selected Poems (Arimei Books, 2021), Zhou Mengdie: 41 Poems (Azoth Books, 2022), and Totally White Room (Poems by Gerrit Kouwenaar, Holland Park Press, 2023). He has translated extensively into English from the Dutch of Herman Gorter, Gerrit Kouwenaar, and Willem Hussem, and from the Chinese of various poets including Lo Fu, Yang Lingye, Bian Zhilin and Zhou Mengdie.

Since the 1980s he has also been active as a poet writing in Dutch and English. He was awarded the Jan Campert Prize for his 1993 bilingual volume Atlantis and the Ida Gerhardt Prize for his 2003 Dutch free-verse readings of the Psalms (republished by Uitgeverij Vesuvius in 2011). His newest books of poetry in Dutch are Intocht (Introit) and Beluisteringen (Soundings), published by Uitgeverij Van Warven in November 2023.

After early retirement in 2004, for a number of years Lloyd Haft spent much of his time in Taiwan with his wife Katie Su. In June 2019 he was named a Distinguished Alumnus of National Taiwan Normal University. In addition to writing and translating, his interests include Song-dynasty philosophy and tai chi. For many years he sang in the choir of a Roman Catholic church of the Eastern Rite in The Hague.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

De Zee te Katwijk (gedichten)

DE ZEE TE KATWIJK

naar Jan Toorop

1. Vlekken aan het zeil

Veeg de vlek niet weg –

laat haar vege licht nog hangen,

kleven aan het zeil

dat zó pas blinkt, ademt,

zo vervuld dat ook wij gade-

slaande varen, vinden,

horen in de wind,

lezen in het bollend leeg:

er klinkt geen einde in.

2. Vlekken aan de zee

Bind, verbind ze niet –

laat ze varen los in alle

smoezel die ze brachten,

teken- of vóórtekenden,

hingen in hun halve licht:

lieten betekenen.

Ander wijzen is er niet

geworden: golven amper op-

glimmend, af-

wissend,

open latend waar wij kunnen

komen, zullen staan.

--Lloyd Haft

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Wijsvinger (gedicht)

Waar ik mijn hand aan de hemel

terug zal laten,

neerleggen bij het lege

dat ons hield, houdt,

koestert waar wij verder wilden

komen en bleven –

daar was, daar is altijd al

deze hand nabij, de zo lang mijn

genaamde, gewezene –

daar zal zij zich voegen

tussen noem het sterrenbanen,

krassen in de hemel

die de vingers kwamen wijzen,

schreven als op water

in het gaan de wilgentenen,

schreven om er anders in

te lezen, te weten

dan de lege lucht alleen.

--Lloyd Haft