Article
Yeah-yeah the Big Bang – Maria Barnas (De Arbeiderspers, 2013)
Yeah-yeah the Big Bang
November 18, 2013
Where the Poet Reads
The finery of leaves in the head of the poet
is more vivid and full than that of the windless
tree sweepingly ablaze in the window
and I can say that our knowledge
cannot match up to burning.
The word-shrub finds no space
where the poet reads and the wind
in this realm where no wind blows
makes the hall highly flammable.
(How the heads nod from fatigue.)
Set fire to the colourful chalices
on the wallpaper that flow in the poet
like unstoppable tears. Can the window be opened now?
We might miss the brief breath of air.
Maria Barnas
from Jaja de oerknal
Seeing and speaking, anticipating, cherishing expectations or putting things in perspective. In the poetry of Maria Barnas all possible ways of relating to someone else, of selecting the appropriate way to act amid the day-to-day of everyday life is all subjected to detailed reflection. It is perhaps necessary to act, but how? And what will be the consequences of that? Sufficient fear is hidden in those questions and they can best be allayed with words. Not that such warding off offers relief or redemption but it does provide new insight. In the poetry of Maria Barnas it is all so succinctly worded.
In earlier collections by Maria Barnas we were able to read how problematic reality was for the first-person narrator of the poems. It seemed that too much of what happened to the narrator gave rise to concern while, in more favourable moods, it could give way to amazement. The narrator was often able to maintain a certain distance and to thus consider reality like a relative outsider. However, in Ja Ja de oerknal [Yeah-yeah the Big Bang] that is no longer possible. It is now fear that gains the upper hand. The poems in Ja Ja de oerknal open up for the reader a view of a world in which the narrator and also the persons circling around him fall prey to uncertainty so that the commonplace is suddenly eyed with suspicion in the knowledge that unpleasant implications could suddenly be revealed. As Erik Menkveld said of the collection, all that is familiar and safe is electrified as it alternates with things that are immense and strange. In pointed and often humorously expressed anecdotes and conversations the most ordinary of situations can suddenly be supercharged and turned into fearful visions.
So it is that the worlds of imagination and reality perpetually interchange so that one witnesses a narrator who, in his or her incapacity to keep in step with the world is doomed, in his or her mind, to keep on having to look for reassurance and explanations. Since the tone and use of language is sustained, the reading of this collection somehow resembles a journey in which one follows the path of one and the same narrator, thus making the collection seem like a diary or biography written by someone who is trying to escape form the fear of existence. 'It is a kind / of panic that wells up in me and like a rising / swarm breaks out of my throat.’, writes Maria Barnas in the title poem. The anxiety which often flies into the poems like a flock of birds has not been averted, instead it has been turned into poetry.
Maria Barnas (1973) is a poet, writer and artist. Both in her writing and visual art she explores how descriptions form and transform reality. Barnas studied at the Rietveld Academy and at the Rijksakademie (National Academy) in Amsterdam. She has published two novels. Her poetry debut Twee zonnen [Two suns] (2003) received the C. Buddingh’ Poetry Prize and in 2009 she went on to win the J.C. Bloemprijs for Er staat een stad op [There is a city on it] (2007). Binnenzee [Inland sea], a walk described in poetic form, appeared in 2005. Her third collection, Jaja de oerknal [Yeah-yeah the Big Bang], came out in 2013. From 2007 until 2010 she was a columnist for the NRC Handelsblad’s Cultural Supplement. Those columns were later collected and published under the title Fantastisch [Fantastic] (2010). She still writes essays on art and literature in a range of different newspapers and magazines.
Jaja de oerknal [Yeah-yeah the Big Bang] is an introspective collection about feelings and experiences (fear, memories, the creative spark) which nevertheless presents a whole wealth of descriptions and observations. The use of language is confident, controlled and fluent, elegantly tracing parallels between what is said and mentioned and what remains silent or implicit. The individual poems cover a wide range of form registers but create together a thematic and stylistic unity. The images are powerful, evocative but never obligatorily symbolic.
Where the Poet Reads
The finery of leaves in the head of the poet
is more vivid and full than that of the windless
tree sweepingly ablaze in the window
and I can say that our knowledge
cannot match up to burning.
The word-shrub finds no space
where the poet reads and the wind
in this realm where no wind blows
makes the hall highly flammable.
(How the heads nod from fatigue.)
Set fire to the colourful chalices
on the wallpaper that flow in the poet
like unstoppable tears. Can the window be opened now?
We might miss the brief breath of air.
Maria Barnas
from Jaja de oerknal
In earlier collections by Maria Barnas we were able to read how problematic reality was for the first-person narrator of the poems. It seemed that too much of what happened to the narrator gave rise to concern while, in more favourable moods, it could give way to amazement. The narrator was often able to maintain a certain distance and to thus consider reality like a relative outsider. However, in Ja Ja de oerknal [Yeah-yeah the Big Bang] that is no longer possible. It is now fear that gains the upper hand. The poems in Ja Ja de oerknal open up for the reader a view of a world in which the narrator and also the persons circling around him fall prey to uncertainty so that the commonplace is suddenly eyed with suspicion in the knowledge that unpleasant implications could suddenly be revealed. As Erik Menkveld said of the collection, all that is familiar and safe is electrified as it alternates with things that are immense and strange. In pointed and often humorously expressed anecdotes and conversations the most ordinary of situations can suddenly be supercharged and turned into fearful visions.
So it is that the worlds of imagination and reality perpetually interchange so that one witnesses a narrator who, in his or her incapacity to keep in step with the world is doomed, in his or her mind, to keep on having to look for reassurance and explanations. Since the tone and use of language is sustained, the reading of this collection somehow resembles a journey in which one follows the path of one and the same narrator, thus making the collection seem like a diary or biography written by someone who is trying to escape form the fear of existence. 'It is a kind / of panic that wells up in me and like a rising / swarm breaks out of my throat.’, writes Maria Barnas in the title poem. The anxiety which often flies into the poems like a flock of birds has not been averted, instead it has been turned into poetry.
Maria Barnas (1973) is a poet, writer and artist. Both in her writing and visual art she explores how descriptions form and transform reality. Barnas studied at the Rietveld Academy and at the Rijksakademie (National Academy) in Amsterdam. She has published two novels. Her poetry debut Twee zonnen [Two suns] (2003) received the C. Buddingh’ Poetry Prize and in 2009 she went on to win the J.C. Bloemprijs for Er staat een stad op [There is a city on it] (2007). Binnenzee [Inland sea], a walk described in poetic form, appeared in 2005. Her third collection, Jaja de oerknal [Yeah-yeah the Big Bang], came out in 2013. From 2007 until 2010 she was a columnist for the NRC Handelsblad’s Cultural Supplement. Those columns were later collected and published under the title Fantastisch [Fantastic] (2010). She still writes essays on art and literature in a range of different newspapers and magazines.
Translator: Diane Butterman
Source: from the jury report upon nomination
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