Nachtroer
Bloodaxe Press, 2020
don’t lean too far now the evening is squeezing out the light and our breath
bump-blue the skin, the pounded war drum for the shortfall inside of us
the house submits to being divided into banana boxes and possessive pronouns
the bookcase into left and right
yours the maps, the Russians and the complete Márquez
I get dictionaries in all languages, biographies of dictators
and yes, poetry, now of all times refusing to speak, you ask:
which bird was it that tears its own breast with its beak?
the pelican gets no further than the tip of my tongue
now I know that mourning starts by bumping your elbow
and radiates into your fingers
pre-emptive anaesthesia before they touch again
Translations:
Italian, Kameleon/Nachtroer, Ensemble, 2021
German, Nachtdrift, transl. Stefan Wieczorek, Leipziger Literaturverlag, 2021
English, Chameleon/Nachtroer, transl. David Colmer, Bloodaxe Books, 2020
French, Noctambulations, transl. Kim Andringa, L’Arbre de Diane, 2019
Serbian, Lutanje Noću, transl. Nevena Ilić, Treći Trg, 2019
Prizes:
Paul Snoek Prijs, 2019
Nominations:
VSB Poetry prize, 2017
Ida Gerhardt prize, 2018
J.C. Bloem prize 2018
“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