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.



Saturday, November 10, 2012

Zwerftocht 1 (gedichten)


(1) WATERVAL TE TAROKO


Waar rivieren waren
kom ik uit,

laat ik het dal
onder mij liggen:

wolken en longen één
ruim, één opnemen:

vingers en takken
één aan de wind raken:

waar ik ben de berg:
één staan.

Donkere rotsen links en rechts
één steen,

water dat er tussen valt
één lopend licht,

één straal open naar boven,
door naar beneden.

Waar zijn de bomen?
hier bij mij,

mee in het staan,
mee in de berg geborgen.

(2) OCHTENDWIND


Hou wind niet tegen:
wind voert adem aan
en gloedomrande dageraad.

Hou die raad niet weg:
rood, van alle dingen moeder
binnen in de wind.

Woord dat warrend tussenwaait
is anders:
killer dan wind,

guurder is woord,
wreder,
schuurt,

dringt, wrikt uiteen,
laat scheuren achter:
aan de wand geen beeld.

Luister niet naar woord.
Hoor de wind, die luistert niet
naar mag, niet naar moeten,

dringt niet van buiten,
voert warm van binnen:
gloed, van alle dingen moeder

binnen in wind. Ook aan woord,
ook aan het niets zal een einde komen,
niet aan hoe de dag begint.

--Lloyd Haft
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