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J. Bernlef

{{Short description|Dutch writer and translator (1937–2012)}}

{{distinguish|Bernlef}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = J. Bernlef

| image = Bernlef.jpg

| image_size = 225

| alt = Portrait of Bernlef

| caption = Bernlef in 2008

| pseudonym = J. Bernlef, Ronnie Appelman, J. Grauw, Cas den Haan, S. den Haan, and Cas de Vries

| birth_name = Hendrik Jan Marsman

| birth_date =14 January 1937

| birth_place = Sint Pancras, Netherlands

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2012|10|29|1937|01|14|df=yes}}

| death_place = Amsterdam, Netherlands

| occupation = Novelist, poet, translator

| spouse = {{marriage|Eva Hoornik|1960}}

| awards = Constantijn Huygens Prize (1984)
P. C. Hooft Award (1994)

| website = {{URL|www.bernlef.net}}

| portaldisp = }}

Hendrik Jan Marsman (14 January 1937 – 29 October 2012), better known by his pen name, J. Bernlef, was a Dutch writer, poet, novelist and translator, much of whose work centres on mental perception of reality and its expression. He won numerous literary awards, including the Constantijn Huygens Prize in 1984 and the P. C. Hooft Award in 1994, both of which were for his work as a whole. His book Hersenschimmen features on the list of NRC's Best Dutch novels.

Life

Marsman was born on 14 January 1937 in Sint Pancras and worked in a number of genres under a variety of pseudonyms, which included Ronnie Appelman, J. Grauw, Cas den Haan, S. den Haan, and Cas de Vries. There had already been a well-known Dutch poet named Hendrik Marsman who had died in 1940, so this Marsman preferred to take the name of an 8th-century blind Frisian poet named Bernlef as his chief nom de plume.

1958 was a key year in Bernlef's life, during which he spent some time in Sweden, enabling him years later to translate Swedish writers; he also co-edited the English language A pulp magazine for the dead generation (under the name Henk Marsman) with the Beat poet Gregory Corso, published from Paris by Piero Heliczer’s The Dead Language Press.[https://verdantpress.com/checklist/piero-heliczer/publications-edited-printed-and-published Piero Heliczer - publications edited printed, and published] Together with two other poets, K. Schippers and G. Brands, he went on to visit the Dada exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum and inspired by that launched with them the seminal magazine Barbarber (1958-71).{{Cite web|url=https://www.literaturfestival.com/autoren-en/autoren-2004-en/bernlef?set_language=en|title=Bernlef — internationales literaturfestival berlin|website=www.literaturfestival.com}}

In 1960 his first poetry collection, Kokkels (Cockles) was awarded the Reina Prinsen Geerligs-prijs. In that year he married Eva Hoornik, daughter of the poet Ed. Hoornik, by whom he eventually had two children. At the same time, his friend Schippers married her twin sister Erica.{{Cite web|url=https://www.kunstbus.nl/literair/k.+schippers.html|title=K. Schippers|website=www.kunstbus.nl|access-date=2021-08-13|archive-date=2017-03-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327174001/http://www.kunstbus.nl/literair/k.+schippers.html|url-status=dead}} Later he began writing novels and became widely known for his Hersenschimmen (translated as Out of Mind) in 1984. He was an industrious writer and shortly before his death a photo showed the pile of his works as equaling him in height.{{Cite web|url=http://bernlef.net/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120521065556/http://www.bernlef.net/|url-status=dead|title=BERNLEF.NET – Aneka Berita Sepakbola Terbaru|archivedate=May 21, 2012}}

Bernlef died on 29 October 2012, aged 75, at his home in Amsterdam after a short illness.{{cite news|url=http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2012/10/dutch_writer_j_bernlef_dies.php|title=Dutch writer J Bernlef dies|work=Dutch News|date=30 October 2012|accessdate=30 October 2012}} One tribute paid to Bernlef then hailed him as "one of the greats of Dutch literature." Another, from Sara Whyatt, Deputy Director of PEN International, pointed out that "Henk was not only a distinguished writer himself, but also a great defender of other writers." In the late 1980s, he had taken over as director of The PEN Emergency Fund, a lifeline to writers and their families whose lives had been blighted by prison, threats, torture and censorship, and worked untiringly for their relief.{{Cite web|url=https://pen-international.org/news/in-memoriam-henk-bernlef-14-january-1937-29-october-2012|title=Promoting freedom of expression and literature|first=P. E. N.|last=International|date=August 12, 2021|website=PEN International}}

Work

Barbarber, the magazine set up by Bernlef and his friends in 1958, originally came out in an edition of 100 copies and was filled with Neo-Dadaist gestures, ready-mades and both verbal and pictorial collages. One issue was composed entirely of wallpaper samples.Yann Lovelock, The Way Forward, Amsterdam 1984, p.85; there is a photo of this at [http://assets.catawiki.nl/assets/2013/4/9/5/c/c/5cc0b8ee-a11a-11e2-98d0-70ea60372032.jpg Catawiki] Under Bernlef’s name appeared a shopping list,Theo Hermans, A Literary History of the Low Countries, Camden House 2009, [https://books.google.com/books?id=N1SgcVffQ_MC&dq=J.+Bernlef+++barbarber&pg=PA604 p.604] while another text titled “Door” consists of only the words “Push/Pull”.Aart van Zoest, [http://aartvanzoest.nl/abduction_in_poetry “Abduction in Poetry”] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208141620/http://aartvanzoest.nl/abduction_in_poetry |date=2015-12-08 }}, 2001 In their study Een cheque voor de tandarts (A cheque for the dentist, 1967), Bernlef and Schippers mention Marcel Duchamp and Kurt Schwitters as the inspiration of such experiments.Yves T’Sjoen, “J. Bernlef and American poetry: Poetic-strategic mentions of Marianne Moore. A case study”, [http://www.dutchcrossing.org/ojs/index.php?journal=dutch-crossing&page=article&op=view&path[]=1159 Dutch Crossing 39.1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170928201137/http://www.dutchcrossing.org/ojs/index.php?journal=dutch-crossing&page=article&op=view&path[]=1159 |date=2017-09-28 }}, 2015 The approach of both authors was to suggest disruptive uses of everyday media in order to challenge the view of reality. Schippers’ poem “Jigsaw Puzzles” consists of a series of suggestions for making such puzzles, including “Photograph a completed jigsaw puzzle/ and make a jigsaw puzzle from that".Dutch Interior: postwar poetry of the Netherlands and Flanders, Columbia University 1984, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cPOqoSriyY0C&dq=%22schippers%22+++jigsaw+puzzles&pg=PA158 pp.158-9] Similarly, Bernlef’s “Uncle Carl: a home movie” fantasizes on ways of playing the movie so as to negate the fact of his uncle’s death.Dutch Interior, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cPOqoSriyY0C&dq=bernlef++%22uncle+carl%22&pg=PA155 p.155]

File:J. Bernlef - Sint Ursulasteeg 28, Leiden.JPG

Later poems explore problems of perception and expression, often referencing the performance of jazz musicians and artists. One of these was eventually made into a tall mural on a Leiden apartment block.

::Tulle, reed, paper, taffeta,

::gauze, bombazine but

::Leonardo’s wings didn’t fly.

::Angels exist in poems

::or in paintings where

::motionless they are in motion.Translation by Scott Rollins, Driftwood House p.36

Bernlef was later to pursue such themes at greater length in his novels. Hersenschimmen (1984) brought him great success. It was widely translated,{{Cite web|url=https://letterenfonds.secure.force.com/vertalingendatabase/search?type=titels&query=Hersenschimmen&id=a05b0000000nAwAAAU|title=Translation database - Letterenfonds|website=letterenfonds.secure.force.com}} filmed in 1987 and produced as a play in 2006. Translated in English as “Out of Mind”, it gives a realistic depiction of the mind’s descent into dementia from the point of view of the sufferer. Eclips (1993) captures the reverse process as the victim of an accident whose mind has been incapacitated slowly returns to normality.The two novels are compared by Alexander Zweers, “The narrator’s position in selected novels by J.Bernlef”, The Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies 19.2, 1998, [http://www.caans-acaen.ca/Journal/issues_online/Issue_XIX_ii_1998/ZWEERS.pdf pp.35-40]

Awards and honours

Translated works

  • Hersenschimmen (1984), translated as Out of Mind (1988) by Adrienne Dixon
  • Publiek geheim (1987), translated as Public Secret (1992) by Adrienne Dixon
  • Driftwood House, a selection of his poems translated by Scott Rollins (1992)
  • Eclips (1993), translated as Eclipse (1996) by Paul Vincent

References

  • [https://www.kb.nl/themas/nederlandse-poezie/moderne-nederlandse-dichters/j-bernlef/j-bernlef-biografie Dutch biographical outline]

{{Reflist}}

Augustinus P. Dierick. 'Constructing and Deconstructing The Maker: Theun de Vries and J. Bernlef on Rembrandt and Vermeer/van Meegeren." Dutch Crossings: A Journal of Low Countries Studies, Nr. 42 (Autumn 1990), 69-84.

External links

{{portal|Poetry}}

{{commons category}}

  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20120521065556/http://www.bernlef.net/ Bernlef], official website
  • [http://www.letterenfonds.nl/en/author/168/j-bernlef J. Bernlef], English profile of the Dutch Foundation for Literature
  • {{IMDb name|id=0076930}}
  • [http://www.schrijversinfo.nl/bernlefj.html Dutch bibliography]
  • {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20171120210204/http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/4016 8 Poems in translation]}}
  • [http://www.caans-acaen.ca/Journal/issues_online/Issue_III_i_ii_1982/Jacobs.pdf 6 Poems in translation]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernlef, J}}

Category:1937 births

Category:2012 deaths

Category:Constantijn Huygens Prize winners

Category:Dutch male novelists

Category:Dutch male poets

Category:20th-century Dutch translators

Category:P. C. Hooft Award winners

Category:People from Langedijk

Category:20th-century Dutch poets

Category:20th-century Dutch novelists

Category:20th-century Dutch male writers