Johannes Pieter "Jan" Kal (; born 1946 in
Haarlem
Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...
) is 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 (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
.
He lives in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
. Along with others, such as
Gerrit Komrij, , and , he helped revive the
sonnet
A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...
in
Dutch poetry,
and substantially all of Kal's work is in sonnet form.
His earliest published work is dated 1966,
and his first volume of sonnets, ''Fietsen op de
Mont Ventoux'' ("Cycling up Mont Ventoux") was published in 1974.
His range of styles and subjects is wide, including
love poetry, religious poems, and
occasional poetry (notably celebrating sportsmen
Ard Schenk,
,
and
Johan Cruijff).
His poetry tends to humorous
irony
Irony, in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what, on the surface, appears to be the case with what is actually or expected to be the case. Originally a rhetorical device and literary technique, in modernity, modern times irony has a ...
as well as, at times,
melancholy.
To English-speaking readers who understand a little Dutch, perhaps his most accessible poems are his many sonnet versions of American popular songs, including those of
Buddy Holly,
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
,
and his favourite,
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
.
In 2007, Kal appeared at the
Crossing Border festival of literature and music in
The Hague
The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
.
Volumes of sonnets
There are no translations of Kal's poetry in English yet.
*''Fietsen op de Mont Ventoux'', 1974 (''Cycling up Mont Ventoux'')
*''Praktijk hervat'', 1978 (''Practice resumed'')
*''December'', 1979
*''Waarom ik geen Neerlandistiek studeer'', 1980 (''Why I don't do Dutch studies'')
*''Assepoester'' (1981) (The ''
Cinderella'' story retold in 39 sonnets, illustrated by Irene Wolfferts)
*''Chinese sonnetten'' (1984)
*''Amsterdam, Halfweg'' 1987, 1989 ("Halfweg" – meaning literally half way – is a railway station midway between Amsterdam and Haarlem)
*''Mijn manier – 144 Sinatra-sonnetten'' (1990) (''My Way''. Dutch translations of Sinatra songs in sonnet form)
*''100 doortimmerde sonnetten uit 25 jaren, 1966-1990'', 1991 (''100 well-crafted sonnets'')
*''Oprechte Haarlemse sonnetten en tekeningen'', 1992 (''True Haarlem sonnets and drawings''. The title is an allusion to a former Haarlem newspaper, the
Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant)
*''Het schrijvershuis'', 1995 (''The House of Writers'')
*''1000 sonnetten, 1966-1996'', 1997
*''Laat ons leven en minnen'', 2000 (''Let us live and make love''. Love poems translated from the
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
of
Catullus)
*''Hun zeggen'', 2007 (''They say'' in working-class Amsterdam Dutch)
*''Een dichter in mijn voorgeslacht'', 2015 (''A poet among my forefathers'')
References
Sources
Jan Kal at the Digital Library of Dutch Literature
External links
Several Jan Kal sonnets
Photos of Jan KalBibliographical information and a link to two of his sonnets
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kal, Jan
1946 births
Living people
Dutch male poets
Dutch republicans
Writers from Haarlem
Occasional poets