Mei (poem)

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Herman Gorter painted by Therese Schwartze Portret van Herman Gorter.jpg
Herman Gorter painted by Thérèse Schwartze

Mei (May) is a poem written by the Dutch poet Herman Gorter and published in 1889. It established Gorter's reputation as a poet and one of the foremost writers of the Tachtigers movement. It is one of the most famous poems in the Dutch language. It has 4,381 lines. [1]

The opening lines are some of the most famous in dutch literature: [1] [2]

DutchEnglish
Een nieuwe lente en een nieuw geluid:
Ik wil dat dit lied klinkt als het gefluit,
Dat ik vaak hoorde voor een zomernacht
In een oud stadje, langs de watergracht.
A new spring and a new sound:
I want this song to sound like the whistle,
That I often heard on a summer's night
In an old town, along the water canal.

The poem was published in De Nieuwe Gids , a poetry journal. [3]

Translations

The poem has been translated into several languages:

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References

  1. 1 2 "1889: Mei: 'Een nieuwe lente en een nieuw geluid' | Koninklijke Bibliotheek". www.kb.nl. Koninklijke Bibliotheek. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  2. "Gedicht Mei van Herman Gorter". Poëzie verrijkt het leven. Poëzie verrijkt het leven. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  3. Vincent, Paul. "Herman Gorter: an introduction". www.poetryinternational.org. Poetry International. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  4. Gorter, Herman (2021). May, an epic poem about youth. ISBN   9789083133607.

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