Part of the Antwerp CityPoem programme, written by the Antwerp CityPoet Bart Moeyaert. Projected in neon on the river at night. The last of 7 Antwerp CityPoems this week, ending tomorrow in an in-depth interview with the people behind the Antwerp programme.
Antwerp CityPoem: Halverwege (Halfway), Bart Moeyaert
> Podcast of Halverwege (Halfway) by Bart Moeyaert on the Stadsdichterpodcast.be (in Dutch)
Before you disappear between the folds of the stream
you shine once more to look.
I do not know for how long.
I do not know either from which side you say goodbye.
Do you say bye tower or bye flat-buildings.
You leave, as you would slide from a threshold.
Unless the wind cooperates and further on the hand appears
of who shouts the loudest come here.
There he is then, your hero, on the dry.
On which bank one cannot predict.
The drowned who lives to tell how little time he had,
does not live long anymore, it’s true, but nevertheless
Would it be the far side, would it be the wall.
There he went ashore then.
Bart Moeyaert (Brugge, 1964) is a Flemish writer. He first lived in Brugge, then in Brussels, and in 1987 moved to Antwerp. There, in 2006, he became the Antwerp CityPoet for two years time.
Whereas his CityPoems are all related to Antwerp (‘Woman and Child’ on tragic murders, ‘Choose’ on the 2006 elections, ‘First Readers’ on the Book Fair, ‘Light House’ on the Antwerp icon building Boerentoren), in his other poems the central theme usually is love. Physical, emotional, love for a partner, a brother, a subject, in short, life.
Very important in Moeyaert’s poems is his lust for life and the lust for writing. He is pure and driven, honest and real. Characteristic to his poetry, he frequently uses enjambments.
Halverwege
Voor je verdwijnt tussen de vouwen van de stroom
schijn je nog één keer om te kijken.
Mij is het niet bekend hoe lang.
Ik weet ook niet van welke kant je afscheid neemt.
Zeg je dag toren of dag flatgebouwen.
Je gaat, zoals je van een drempel glijdt.
Tenzij de wind meezit en verderop de hand verschijnt
van wie het hardste roept kom hier.
Daar staat je held dan op het droge.
Op welke wal voorspelt men niet.
De drenkeling die navertelt hoe weinig tijd hij had,
heeft weliswaar niet lang, maar niettemin
zelf ingeschat, hoe groot zijn kansen waren.
Werd het de overkant, werd het de muur.
Daar ging hij dan aan land.
- Antwerp (1) - Boerentoren in love
- 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
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.
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.