Alfred Schaffer

Daar horen we engelen zingen

اللغة: الهولندية

Daar horen we engelen zingen

Niemand is in leven, een oude klacht. Je moet flink kauwen
en slikken, de geboden zijn taai. Gij zult niet liegen of stelen,
gij zult geen vreemde zijn, niet welkom heten en altijd kun je
je legitimeren. Zelfs hier waar je ligt te verpieteren, ergens in

een uithoek van de wereld, waar machientjes blije geluiden
produceren, waar iedere siddering wordt gemeten en spiegels
reflecteren. Waar geen wind bij kan, geen natuurlijk licht, je
hebt de elementen lief. Wind erodeert, water doet verweren.

Water, bevroren, is niet transparant maar grijswit, inktzwart
wanneer het geweld pleegt en daar zit je hartspier en daar zit
je lever. Je vermoordt nog eens iemand, wijst naar je hoofd:

‘Ik ben een teken.’ Je lacht, zigzagt verschrikkelijk, stromend
is water zonder genade maar soms wordt een rivier gehinderd
in zijn loop. Door hardere steenlagen, dwars in zijn bedding.

Alfred Schaffer

Foto © gezett.de

* 30.11.1972, هولندا
يعيش في: , هولندا

Alfred Schaffer was born in The Netherlands in 1973.

“Unrest. Anxiety. Suspicion. Curiosity.” This was the young Dutch poet Alfred Schaffer’s response to the question as to what motivated him as a poet. Schaffer is rightly regarded as one of the most interesting young poets in the Dutch-language region.

Schaffer’s poems are characterized by the cool, business-like tone with which he records unsettling observations. It is seldom that one idea or one observation is elaborated on right till the end. “It is not my aim to work out a line of coherent thought in a poem,” he says in the same interview. “Life itself is not coherent, my poetry is oriented toward articulating something of this diffusion.”

Foto © gezett.de

He achieves this by describing several fragments and details of scenes and situations. “You could refer to my poems as ‘collages’. I’m concerned with the experiment with language and significance, with the way in which words influence one another when they are placed in a certain context.” Schaffer provides a snapshot but never an entire panorama. As a consequence, his poems have a strongly alienating effect. They offer the reader little to hold on to in an attempt to formulate a sound interpretation (in the traditional meaning of the word) and thus often evoke a feeling of unease.

Nevertheless, the rapid switch between apparently incoherent fragments does not lead to a kind of non-committal poetry. The procedure applied by the poet does result in a coherent whole; this is not narrative poetry but rather expressive poetry. Although the things described have a positive correlation with our own everyday lives (many lines have even been adopted from everyday language use, including sayings and jargon), Schaffer creates a completely strange and alienating language in his poetry. It is a world in which people are frequently watched or monitored, and one in which it is impossible to clarify the surroundings. It is a world that most resembles a claustrophobic nightmare.

In Schaffer’s first two collections, this world is primarily described via various characters who are helpless playthings of events and circumstances. These, in turn, have absolutely no purpose. The yearnings and requirements of the characters are of no avail. In his oppressive last collection Geen hand voor ogen, where the poems have become more austere in their form, the focus is shifted from the characters to the reader (and perhaps the poet himself), so that this confusion and despair are given shape in a very direct manner.

Schaffer made his debut in 2000 with the collection of poems Zijn opkomst in de voorstad (His Rise in the Suburb), for which he received the Jo Peters Poetry Award and a nomination for the C. Buddingh’ Award, both of which are prizes for young poets. His second book of poems Dwaalgasten (Vagrants; 2002) met favourable reviews and was nominated for the VSB Poetry Award. After the bibliophilic publication Definities en hallucinaties (Definitions and hallucinations; 2003), his most recent collection Geen hand voor ogen (No hand before your eyes) was published in May 2004 and once again nominated for the VSB Poetry Award.

Schaffer’s poems have been translated into Afrikaans, English, French, German, Macedonian, and Swedish. After years of living in South Africa, where he taught Modern Dutch Literature at the University of Cape Town, he returned to the Netherlands in 2005 to work for the Amsterdam publishing house Cossee. Together with South African poet and writer Antjie Krog he compiled Nuwe Stemme 3, an anthology for yet unpublished Afrikaans talent.

“Schaffer is susceptible to the absurd reality in which we live, but does not allow himself to be overawed. Sober and resolute, he pursues his own route, eradicating the humbug, discarding the disorder: he knows where he’s going. Alfred Schaffer is already one of the poets who will lead the way in the years to come.”

Adriaan Jaeggi in Het Parool

“At first sight, Schaffer is a poet who quasi-nonchalantly observes the world around him from a surprising perspective. A closer look shows that he is more than that. The merit of his poetry lies in the suggestion he evokes, rather than in the observation.”

Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer in NRC Handelsblad

“The result is intriguing, entertaining, and draws Schaffer’s challenging poetic horizon right in front of the readers’ face. With Vagrants, Schaffer has proven that he is steadfastly situated between promise and a challenging future.” The jury of the VSB Poetry Award on Dwaalgasten (Vagrants)

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