Tom Van de Voorde

[Mijn postbode vraagt me wat]

Language: dutch

Translations: german ([Meine Briefträgerin fragt mich was]), english ([My postman asks me what]), spanish ([La mujer cartero me pregunta qué]), french ([Le sens de royaume en hébreu]), croatian ([Moja me poštarica pita što]), macedonian ([Поштарката ме прашува како]), slovak ([Moja poštárka sa ma pýta ako]), slovenian ([Moj pismonoša me vpraša, kako]), swedish ([Brevbäraren frågar mig vad])

[Mijn postbode vraagt me wat]

Mijn postbode vraagt me wat
koninkrijk betekent in het Hebreeuws

als ik haar de voor- en nadelen van
het lijfeigenschap wil opsommen

fietst ze de heuvel af en roept
de laatste woorden van Hadrianus

ze blijken niet in de Britannica te staan
bij onze volgende ontmoeting

wijst ze naar een hoop stenen die
allang op een toren wachten.

Translations:

Language: german

[Meine Briefträgerin fragt mich was]

Meine Briefträgerin fragt mich was
Königreich auf Hebräisch bedeutet

als ich ihr die Vor- und Nachteile
der Leibeigenschaft aufzählen möchte

radelt sie den Hügel hinunter und ruft
die letzten Worte Hadrians

wie sich zeigt stehen sie nicht in der Britannica
bei unserer nächsten Begegnung

deutet sie auf einen Haufen Steine die
schon lange auf einen Turm warten.

Language: english

[My postman asks me what]

My postman asks me what
kingdom means in Hebrew

when I start to recapitulate
the pros and cons of serfdom to her

she bikes it down the hill
bellowing the last words of Hadrian

these are missing from the Britannica
at our next encounter

she points to a heap of stones
that has long been awaiting a tower.

Language: spanish

[La mujer cartero me pregunta qué]

La mujer cartero me pregunta qué
significa reino en hebreo

cuando yo comienzo a recapitularle
los pros y los contras de la servidumbre

ella monta su bicicleta cuesta abajo
bramando las últimas palabras de Adriano

esas que le faltan a la Británica
en nuestro próximo encuentro

ella señala un montón de piedras
que hace mucho espera una torre.

Language: french

[Le sens de royaume en hébreu]

Le sens de royaume en hébreu
me demande ma factrice

je m’apprête à lui énumérer
les pour et les contre du servage

la voici qui dévale la colline
lançant les dernières paroles d’Hadrien

inutile de les chercher dans la Britannica
lors de notre rencontre suivante

la voici qui me montre un tas de pierres
depuis longtemps elles attendent d’être tour.

Language: croatian

[Moja me poštarica pita što]

Moja me poštarica pita što
kraljevstvo znači na hebrejskom

kad joj hoću navesti
prednosti i nedostatke podanstva

ona se biciklom spusti niz brijeg izvikujući
posljednje Hadrijanove riječi

izgleda da ne stoje u Brittanici
prilikom našeg sljedećeg susreta

pokazuje gomilu kamenja koje
već odavna čeka toranj.

Language: macedonian

[Поштарката ме прашува како]

Поштарката ме прашува како
се вика кралство на Хебрејски

кога почнувам да ѝ ги повторувам
предностите и недостатоците на закрепостеноста

вози со велосипедот надолу по ридот
урлајќи ги последните зборови на Хадријан

нив ги нема во Британика
а при следното видување

ми покажува на еден куп камења
кои одамна си чекаат кула.

Language: slovak

[Moja poštárka sa ma pýta ako]

Moja poštárka sa ma pýta ako
sa po hebrejsky povie kráľovstvo

keď jej chcem vymenovať
výhody a nevýhody nevoľníctva

spustí sa z kopca na bicykli a zvolá
posledné Hadrianove slová

zdá sa že nie sú v Brittanike
pri našom nasledujúcom stretnutí

ukáže na hromadu kamenia ktorá už dlho
čaká kým z nej niekto postaví vežu.

Language: slovenian

[Moj pismonoša me vpraša, kako]

Moj pismonoša me vpraša, kako
se v hebrejščini reče kraljestvo

ko ji hočem našteti prednosti
in slabosti tlačanstva

se s kolesom spusti po klancu in mi
zakliče poslednje Hadrijanove besede

izkaže se, da niso zapisane v Brittanici
ob najinem naslednjem srečanju

pokaže na kup kamenja, ki
že dolgo čaka na stolp.

Language: swedish

[Brevbäraren frågar mig vad]

Brevbäraren frågar mig vad
kungadöme innebär på hebreiska

när jag tänker rabbla
för- och nackdelarna med livegenskap

cyklar hon nedför kullen och ropar
de sista orden från Hadrianus

de visar sig inte stå i Britannica
vid vårt nästa sammanträffande

pekar hon ut en stenhög som
länge har väntat på sitt torn.

Tom Van de Voorde

* 10.04.1974, Ghent, Belgium
lives in: Ghent, Belgium

Tom Van de Voorde is a writer, curator of interdisciplinary projects and translator of poetry into Dutch. In 2008, he published his first book of poetry, a collection of "contemporary landscape" pieces. The book was nominated for the C. Buddingh Prize for best poetry debut during the International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam, 2009. In 2013 he published his second collection of poems, isolating microscopic stills of political and economic issues. The collection was nominated for the Herman De Coninck prize for the best poetry collection, 2013 and awarded the tri-annual poetry prize of East Flanders. Selections of this collection have been translated into ten languages. In 2016, a full length book translation was published in Sweden by Ramus Forlag. In 2017 he published his third collection.

Tom Van de Voorde has been invited to take part in international poetry festivals in Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Nicaragua, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, The Netherlands. Since 2013 he has been one of the poet laureates at the Versopolis project, a European platform for emerging poets supported by the creative industry program of the European Union.
As a translator of poetry into Dutch he worked on American poets such as Wallace Stevens, Michael Palmer and Ariana Reines. Together with his partner Staša Pavlović he translated the poetry of the Slovenian poets Katja Perat and Tomaž Šalamun.

From 2005 to 2010, Tom Van de Voorde was the Belgian editor of the international poetry websites Lyrikline.org and Poetry International Web.
In 2010, he was appointed curator for literature programs at the Centre of Fine Arts BOZAR in Brussels, where he has developed an interdisciplinary series wherein writers dialogue with music and fine arts.

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