Dichtregel Ilya Kaminsky op vuilniswagen

June 07, 2022

Every Rotterdammer knows them: the lines of poetry on the sides of the sweepers and garbage trucks of the Maas City. On Saturday, June 11, a line of poetry by the Ukrainian poet Ilya Kaminsky has been added to the fleet of Stadsbeheer Rotterdam. The line "The sounds we do not hear lifts the gulls from the water" was revealed by Kaminsky himself. For the first time in the history of 'Het gedicht is een bericht' (The poem is a message) a line of poetry has been placed on the truck in both Dutch and English. In this way 'Het gedicht is een bericht' will also appeal to non-Dutch speaking Rotterdammers and guests in the city. 

For over thirty years, the City Council wagons have not only been collecting garbage or sweeping the Binnenrotte after the market, they have also been bringing the most beautiful poetry into the homes of Rotterdammers. The lines of poetry on the wagons of Stadsbeheer are derived from the poetry of poets who perform annually at the Poetry International Festival Rotterdam. 'The poem is a message' as the collaboration between the municipality and Poetry International is called, has existed since 1988 (so 35 years in 2023). The collaboration takes its name from the poem of the same name by Rotterdam poet Jules Deelder, who died in 2019; in 1988 it was the first line of poetry to travel through the city on a garbage truck.