Chameleon
Bloodaxe Press, 2020
We don’t know where from
or how it overwhelms us
only that it stretches out
in the seconds between the falling beams
of the motorway lights and tangles into me.
Your shoulder blades stick out so sharply
the bones form a skull
that looks at me with reproach
for knowing so little beyond what I perceive
and what I perceive is at the mercy
of the chameleon in my head that licks
everything to camouflage.
Translations:
Italian, Kameleon/Nachtroer, Ensemble, 2021
English, Chameleon/Nachtroer, transl. by David Colmer, Bloodaxe Books, 2020
African, Kameleon, transl. by Daniel Hugo, Protea Boekhuis, 2020
Spanish, Camaleón, transl. by Ronald Brouwer, De Conatus, 2018
Awards:
Herman de Coninck Award, 2016
“Reading Charlotte Van den Broeck’s recent Bloodaxe collection makes it clear to the reader exactly why she is acclaimed as one of Europe’s most innovative and original new voices in poetry.”
– Lizzie Hissum, Dundee University Review of Arts
“This joint volume translation introduces the young Belgian poet to English-language audiences with the rich tonal and emotional range that the breadth of two collections allow for. Van den Broeck’s poems stretch from playfulness to introspective and melancholy moods, and her uncanny imagination characterises every single one of her poems. Chameleon | Nachtroer marks the development of a strange and distinctive voice, which comes through powerfully in David Colmer’s astute translation.”
– Helena Fornelis, Asymptote Journal
- Review Asymptote: Poetic Childhood and Adulthood: On Charlotte Van den Broeck’s Chameleon | Nachtroer
- Review Dundee University Review of the Arts: Chameleon | Nachtroer
- Review Modern Poetry in Translation: The Boundless Possibility
- Review Drat Magazine: Found Poems: Charlotte Van den Broeck’s Chameleon