Cornelis "Kees" Buddingh' (7 August 1918 – 24 November 1985) was a Dutch

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

, TV-presenter,

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

. Amongst others he translated ''A Clockwork Orange'' and the complete works of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

into Dutch. His son Wiebe Buddingh‘ later became the translator of

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students a ...

into the Dutch language. The

C. Buddingh'-prijs The C. Buddingh'-prijs (Dutch for C. Buddingh' Prize) is an annual literary award for the best debut poetry collection in Dutch. The award is given by Poetry International Web, Poetry International and is named after Dutch poet C. Buddingh'. The ...

literary award is named after him.

Biography

Kees Buddingh’ was born on 7 August 1918 in

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...

. He went to the HBS from 1930 to 1935 and in 1938 he received his grade of MO-A in English in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...

. He was in military service from 1938 to 1940, until he was diagnosed with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...

. For that illness, he was treated for several years. After several publications in the prewar literary magazines "Den Gulden Winckel" and "Criterium", Buddingh' debuted with his collection "Het geïrriteerde lied" (1941). These publications of surreal poems were illegal, due to the German occupation of the Netherlands in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. In 1944, a little under-the-counter book was clandestinely published, a series of erotic

quatrain A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Gre ...

s titled ''Praeter gallum cantat''. Also his translations of four poems by W.H. Auden were issued clandestinely. While in the sanitarium for his tuberculosis, he wrote his famous "gorgelrijmen", of which "De blauwbilgorgel" (1943) is the most famous. This particular poem was inspired by an English children’s novel titled ''The Bluebillgurgle'' by E. Nesbit. He published the "gorgelrijmen" in many different editions, among which "10 gorgelrijmen", an illustrated collection of which only ten copies were printed in 1954. He also worked for "Gard Sivik" and "Barbarber", two Dutch magazines. Later in his life, Buddingh’ was a literary critic and a translator. He translated many English books into Dutch, including '' The Forsyte Saga'' by

John Galsworthy John Galsworthy (; 14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include '' The Forsyte Saga'' (1906–1921) and its sequels, ''A Modern Comedy'' and ''End of the Chapter''. He won the Nobel Prize ...

and ''A Clockwork Orange'', together with his son Wiebe. Together with the cartoonist Otto Dicke he created the newspaper comics ''Spekkie en Blekkie'' (1955-1965) and ''Jesje en Josje'', for which he wrote the scripts. Throughout his life, Buddingh' felt a strong connection to his native town of Dordrecht and the city features in many of his works including the poem "Ode aan Dordrecht". In 1975 he wrote the "Boekenweekgeschenk". Buddingh' published a translation of a volume of poetry by D.J. Enright, "Paradise Illustrated", in 1982. He had a part-time job at the institute for translation studies at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other bein ...

. Buddingh' also was the chairman of the publishing company De Bezige Bij and was granted an honorary citizenship of Dordrecht on his 60th birthday.

Personal life

In 1950 he married Christina "Stientje" van Vuren. They had two sons, Sacha and Wiebe. Cees Buddingh’ died while recovering from an operation on 24 November 1985.

Sources

External link

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buddingh, C. 1918 births 1985 deaths Dutch male poets Dutch comics writers Dutch literary critics Dutch translators Dutch television presenters People from Dordrecht 20th-century Dutch poets 20th-century Dutch male writers 20th-century translators