Poetry
Geheimschrift
Not translated into English
Jan van Nijlen · 1934
Synopsis
Short poems, in regular metres and stanzas, turned towards what passes and what returns: the garden, the seasons, the childhood home, the tree at whose foot one played, and which one finds again alone. Alongside this intimate vein, the collection opens to the outside world in a more playful and often ironic tone. The best-known piece addresses travellers and advises them never to board a train without their suitcase of dreams, for otherwise they will be well lodged nowhere.
Context
The collection appeared in Haarlem in the spring of 1934 and won its author the State Prize for Flemish poetry for the period 1932-1934. Menno ter Braak then hailed a poet wrongly neglected, none of whose pieces cries out. It contains the poem by which he is still known, a notice to travellers, the first lines of which were set in 2011 in Antwerp Central Station. Setting out in reaction against the aestheticism of Karel van de Woestijne, he finds in it a more concrete, more ironic manner.
Who it is for
Short pieces in regular metre and stanza, without formal experiment; no French or English translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
Awarded a state prize and praised by Dutch critics; one of its lines has passed into everyday language.