photo: Qbit

 

(In bold the translation of the part on the banner on the Boerentoren tower, one of the eldest high rise buildings in Europe. It's a part of a poem in which this exact tower declares his love for the OLV Cathedral. Five months later, the Cathedral tower replied, by the way, stating that she was honoured by the attention, but that the Boerentoren is of course too young for her. Both projects were part of the programme of the Dienst Boekenstad, the City's office branding Antwerp as Book City.)

Why do I flatly reside
lost squared in your
tender shadow side
your broidery from stone
- as tower I’m inadequate
as lover I’m too young.

1/4
Grants nonetheless
the unwieldy to the elegance
of beauty, sense and is the
ponderous not most apt
to admire refinement.

2/4
are we not then you and I
- that obtuse born square
formed from gain that tight
farmer muted by your vision
not predestined for each other ?

3/4
Accept me, take me,
see me standing,
start with me in day
In night, your beauty
in facade, see me then,
love me, crumble, don't
hold back.

Tom Lanoye (St. Niklaas, Belgium, 1958)
Translation by Fredo

   

About the author

Tom Lanoye (born August 27, 1958 in Sint-Niklaas) is a Flemish novelist and poet.

Lanoye started his carreer as poet in the style of John Cooper Clarke. From 1981, he formed a duo with James Bordello. Within a year they went from unannounced recitals in Ghent student cafés to the Night of Poetry in Utrecht.

In 1986 he broke through with a large audience in Belgium and The Netherlands. Lanoyes coquetry, sales talent and stylistic elasticity made him grow from a loud enfant terrible to a settled source of all forms of text and writing. He produces for books, newspapers, magazines and other printed papers, for theater, cabaret and song productions. All of these activities he takes on in the broadest sense of the word (quote from the statute of the public limited company L.A.N.O.Y.E. that was founded in 1992).

Best known became his columns for Humo, which more than once were about his resentment against the right wing populist party Vlaams Blok), the coming of age novel ‘Kartonnen dozen’ (1991), his adaptation of Shakespeare’s The War of the Roses: ‘Ten Oorlog’ (1997) and the ‘Monstertrilogy’ that appeared from 1997, a soap satire about his beloved Flanders.

> Podcast of Tom Lanoye (iin Dutch, 12 Mb) about the Boerentoren
> Homepage of Tom Lanoye (in Dutch)

   

• Antwerp (2) - on the river Schelde
• Antwerp (3) - Nasr on poverty
• Antwerp (4) - on 500,000 beer mats
• Antwerp (5) - on 30,000 door hangers
• Antwerp (6) - UtopiA
• Antwerp (7) - ZOO
• Antwerp (8) - train station
• Antwerp (9) - soul of Antwerp

And check the presentation of Michaël Vandebril of the City of Antwerp who is behind these projects on the Inspiring Cities CityPoems & CityPoets Salon of 2006, including video presentation about the projects of Antwerp.

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Inspiring Cities Museum of CityPoems

Inspiring Cities has collected many citypoems over the years, as well as organized salons with citypoets and cities doing special projects. We have two criteria for what a citypoem is: the intention must be poetic, and it must be in the public realm of cities. Shapes, form and locations can and do differ.

The Museum of CityPoems has citypoems from cities all over the world. From Alhambra to Zonnebeke, from Taipei to Lima.

Got one yourself? Mail us your pictures (free of rights) and description, and we will publish.