Those of you with a memory longer than those interesting socks your boss is wearing this morning may remember that I pointed out in May that Rafael Ramos, La Vanguardia’s correspondent in London, appeared to be semi-literate, prone to invention, and a plagiarist. When I complained to the paper’s ombudsman, Josep Maria Casasús, he emailed…
Some of the recent obituaries of super-poet Willem Wilmink (1936-2003) managed to avoid mentioning his writings in Twents, despite the fact that this part of his work – he also translated, wrote and rewrote extensively in Dutch – enjoyed a large following in Twente. Let’s start by locating the two languages. Linguists classify Dutch and…
I’ve already posted Catalan translations of selections from Gerard Monnink (who travelled with Toon Damhuis) and Jan Cremer Senior; Harry Jutten – who cycled from Oldenzaal to Aswan and back between September 1985 and May 1986 – is the last of the quartet of Dutch cyclists who in the twentieth century endangered road-users from Denekamp…
Although Catalonia has donkeys rather as the Soviet Union used to have coalminers, the nation’s poets have tended to avoid the devil’s walking parody on all four-footed things – that’s if we exclude Mr Cervantes and his great chivalric hero, Donkey Hotee. (Am I the only person who didn’t know that Donkey Kong is so-called…
