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Lucebert: The Collected Poems, Volume 3

Lucebert [Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk]

Translated and Introduced by Diane Butterman

A Bilingual Edition

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SEE ALSO:
Lucebert: The Collected Poems, Volume 1
Lucebert: The Collected Poems, Volume 2
Lucebert: The Collected Poems, Volume 4

Lucebert (pseudonym of Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk, 1924–1994) lived in Amsterdam and later in Bergen, a coastal town in the Netherlands then popular with artists.

The experimental and enigmatic quality of his verse made him a sensation in the early 1950s. He was instantly embraced by the avant-garde movements CoBrA and The Fiftiers, but eyed with suspicion by the Dutch establishment. Today, he is acknowledged as an important voice within the literary canon, and his prolific legacy extends to thousands of paintings and drawings.

The Collected Poems, Volume 3 includes his books Beautiful View & Other Curiosities (1965), Harvesting in the Wandering Garden (1981), The Marsh Rider from Paradise (1982) and Uncollected Poems (1964–74). Although the publication of his poetry books temporarily stagnated, this volume demonstrates that he was not totally inactive in the late 1960s–70s.

Book Review(s)

NEWPAGES BLOG, July 11, 2022

by Jason Gordy Walker

"Book Review :: Lucebert: The Collected Poems, Volume 3"

The ranting, mischievous, socially engaged verse of Lucebert, the great Dutch poet, painter, and anti-apartheid activist, dazzles (and dizzies) the reader with surrealistic images, quick tone shifts, puns, and jazzy philosophical musings. Published by Green Integer in a pocket-sized, bilingual edition, Volume 3 shows Lucebert, a well-known affiliate of experimental writing movements De Vijftigers and CoBrA, on top of his game. See this tercet from the brief, wry “communiqué”:

through logic people get ahead
shoot for kicks at rats wolves riffraff
god is a pet[.]

Or consider how

…always music makes music
rocking ejector-seat directed
at perilous fluffy down
sweet skirt that frowns
like an enjoying forehead

Images morph into more images, mimicking the consciousness that commits them to paper. Diane Butterman’s translations from the Dutch into English preserve (and transform) the poems’ spirits. In “…and tomorrow the whole world,” a poem full of sharp adjectives, the poet pokes fun at class privilege:

…from our snooty benefits we will if need be
weave a temporary bandage for the world[.]

Lucebert eschews proper punctuation, creating language-rivers, reminding us to be wary of the “…little butcher [who] planned to slaughter the whole nation.”

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