Lost in translation

Poets write a new Dutch chapter in the culture wars.

Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, Amanda Gorman

THIS IS A STORY of two poets. One American, one Dutch. One Black, one white. Although these binary terms are best avoided, of course: they start us off on a weak footing, shackled to old labels. More accurately, both writers share a poetic aspiration: an idea that language can be liberating.  

Amanda Gorman is the 22 year-old national youth poet laureate of the United States, who moved her global audience to tears with a performance of her poem The Hill We Climb at President Joe Biden’s inauguration. A sensation on the steps of the White House, she was promptly offered a modelling contract by international agency IMG Models. Can any other poet claim such a giddy combination of precedents?

Argument over the choice of Gorman’s translator has left a trail in the sand: a new frontline, on Dutch territory, in the globalised culture wars

In the Volkskrant, Janice Deul enthused at Gorman in dress-up - haar fabuleuze inauguratie-look. Bright yellow Prada coa…