pier at ijmuiden they’ve asphalted the sea now the sea fingers the tar looking for itself just like a sniffing sow smells what formerly was a part of herself along the sea, they’ve built upon sand, constructed views and installed loudspeakers outside too so that music drowns out the slang of the waves it’s understood exactly where you are go back to the start
International Translation Day: Saskia de Jong’s ‘pier’
In honour of St Jerome and International Translation Day, here is my first ever translation, being a version of Saskia de Jong‘s poem ‘pier’, originally published in Dutch in her book resistent (Uitgeverij Prometheus, 2006). Yay for translators!

2 Comments
Yay for translators indeed! Really enjoyed this… ‘the slang of waves’ is superb.
Ta, Graham! It’s funny you mention that phrase – the word ‘slang’ appears in the original poem, and I initially translated it as ‘snake’ (as a snake in Dutch is a ‘slang’), so the phrase was ‘the snake of waves’ which I was kind of proud of until Saskia told me it was actually the English word ‘slang’, which, you’re right, is also cool. So, yay for poets too!