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ACTA UNIVERSITATIS PALACKIANAE OLOMUCENSIS FACULTAS PHILOSOPHICA NEERLANDICA II – 2003 Horatian intertextuality in Poot’s poem “De Lente” Rudi T. van der Paardt (University of Leyden) Like his compatriots Virgil and Ovid, the Roman poet Q. Horatius Flaccus had an enormous influence on the history of Western literature. Especially his Odes, four books with poems in the tradition of the great Greek lyric poets, and his witty Epistula ad Pisones or Ars Poetica were often the models for imitation or adaptation. In several periods of Dutch literature we find poets, who have been strongly influenced by Horace. It is no coincidence that most of them were interested in poetical theory and that they were masters of poetic expression themselves. I mention the names of Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679), according to many readers the best Dutch poet ever; Willem Bilderdijk (1756–1831), the many-sided scholar and poet; and the most outstanding representative of the Dutch Romantic movement, Anthonie Staring (1767–1840). Only the first of them, Vondel, will play a role in my paper, and this is because in 1654 he made an important translation of all of Horace’s Odes. It was read by many contemporaries and remained popular with later readers. One of them, we know for sure, was Hubert Korneliszoon Poot (1689–1733), the Farmer-Poet. His admiration of Horace is obvious from his adaptation of the famous second epode, Beatus ille. In Akkerleven (Farmer-Life), published in 1720, Poot gave an impression of the contrasts between the life of a trader in the big city and the rustic life with cows and sheep on the farm, the sort of life he lived more or less himself. The opening of the Dutch poem: Hoe genoeglijk rolt het leven / Des gerusten Lantmans heen [How full of comfort is the life / Of a farmer and his wife] has become proverbial. In his small book Mijn vriend Horatius (My friend Horace) the classicist C. Ghislain pretends that he has a conversation with Horace himself about the qualities of Akkerleven (which he reads to him, curiously enough, in Dutch) and it turns out that Horace approves of this clever piece of work from his so much younger colleague. Ghislain then notes a typical difference between the two poets.1 Whereas Poot makes us believe that life in the countryside is the perfect bliss for mortal men, Horace puts the eulogy into the mouth of an old usurer, by the name of Alfius (it refers to the Greek word for gain), who does not possess a true predisposition for 1 C. Ghislain, Mijn vriend Horatius (My friend Horace), The Hague 1957, p. 40. 125 farming life and finally returns to his usual way of living.2 Thus, one thing is already clear: in his imitation of Horace (and also of other classical poets, such as Ovid) Poot takes the liberty to omit certain elements of his model. It is, however, not Poot’s Akkerleven that I want to discuss here, but another poem showing Horatian intertextuality: De Lente (The Spring), from Minnezangen, love- -poems in the tradition of Petrarch and the Dutch poet P. C. Hooft, which form part of his first volume of Mengeldichten, published in 1716. Specialists such as C. M. Geerars and Riet Schenkeveld have recognised that this text owes much to a Horatian ode. They both point out that in the beginning of De Lente, in the description of the flight of winter and the appearance of spring, Poot uses expressions which come from Odes 1.4. Poot did not know enough Latin to read the Latin text on his own and he consequently probably used Vondel’s translation, although it is not impossible that he read the Latin with the help of a friend who translated the text for him. The aim of my paper is to show that there are at least two other spring-odes which come into account as possible Horatian models for Poot’s poem, but that he did not use them in the same way. I will now give the Dutch text with my own prose-translation into English. I have tried to maintain some of the rhythm, but have had to give up the embracing rhyme and the archaic flavour of the 18th century language. Even native Dutch speakers need some commentary for the text. I use in my translation the explanatory notes given by Geerars in his edition of Minnezangen. De Lente Aen mejuffrouwen Katharina en Debora Blokhuizen. d’Ontdooide winter vlucht naer ’t noord op Jovis doemen. De boer verlaet den haert: het vee den muffen stal. Nu lagchen berg en dal En bosch en bron en vliet en beemt en gras en bloemen. 5 d’Alvoênde zomer, daer ’t geluk zich aen liet binden, Is ons door zoete gunst al weder toegedaen, En fladdert herwaert aen, Met loome vleugelen van laeuwe westewinden. Nu wort het eenmael tydt de stadt om ’t wout te ruimen, 10 Om ’t aengename wout, dat, vry en ongedeert, Zoo vrolyk quinkeleert, En orgels hooren laet, vergult met zachte pluimen. Wat dunkt u, Juffertjes, Blokhuizens eedle telgen, Wilt ge in zaligh velt den blyden voglezang 15 (Gezang behaegde u lang) Eens met uwe ooren zien en met uw geesten zwelgen? Wilt ge in den morgenstont eens blanke paerlen lezen 2 Typical for the Dutch reception of Beatus ille; see M. A. Schenkeveld-van der Dussen, Het dichterschap van Hubert Korneliszoon Poot (The poetry of Hubert Korneliszoon Poot), Assen 1968, p. 184. 126 Van nuchtre klaverblaên of scheemrigh lindegroen? Welaen. ai, koomt het doen! 20 Uw minlyk wezen zal by godtheên welkom wezen. Ja koomt: zoo leide ik u daer beek – en boomgodinnen Een’ groen fluweelen vloer bedansen, hant aen hant. Neen blyft; de minn[e]brant Wort buiten thans gestookt, daer al de dieren minnen. 25 Kupido school zich korts in lentgewas en rozen. Dies, vreest ge ’t Jongske nogh, zoo houdt u ongenoodt, Of plukt ’er groen noch root. Maer zacht, myn lier, gy doet vier schoone wangen blozen. Spring To the young ladies Catherine and Deborah Blokhuizen Melted Winter flees to the North on Jupiter’s command. The farmer leaves the hearth, the cattle the musty stable. Now, mountain and valley laugh And wood, and fountain, river, meadow, grass & flowers too. 5 Nursing Summer, which was connected with happiness, Is already attached to us by sweet favour And flitters in our direction With slow wings of tepid Western winds. Now, it is time to exchange the city for the pleasant forest, 10 The forest that, free and unharmed, Carols so merrily, And plays the organ that is decorated with soft feathers. What do you think, noble shoots of Mr. Blokhuizen, Do you want to see with your ears the happy sound 15 (you were attached to warbling for a long time) Of birds in a blessed field and revel in their songs? Do you want to gather in morning-time the white pearls Of sober clover-leaf or dusky green of lindentree? Well, come and see 20 Your charming nature will be most welcome to the Gods. Yes, come: I’ll bring you there, where Naiads linking arms With Dryads dance on the green velvet floor. But no, stay. The Fire of Love Is burning outside now, where all what lives is set ablaze. 25 Cupid just hid himself in spring-crops and in roses. So, if you fear the boy, stay uninvited Or if you come, avoid the flowery green. But hush, my lyre, you cause the blushing of four handsome cheeks. 127 Even from a formal point of view, there are some resemblances between Horace Odes 1.4 and De Lente. Both the Roman and the Dutch poet use units of four lines, while their metre also shows the same sort of variation: Horace’s uneven lines are longer than his even ones, which have an iambic scheme; in Poot’s poem every third line is half as long as the other three: it has three instead of six iambic units. More significant, however, are the verbal parallels. I present the Latin text, with the recent English translation by David West (1995). solvitur acris hiems grata vice veris et Favoni trahuntque siccas machinae carinas, ac neque iam stabulis gaudet pecus aut arator igni nec prata canis albicant pruinis. iam Cytherea choros ducit Venus imminente luna, iunctaeque Nymphis Gratiae decentes alterno terram quatiunt pede, dum gravis Cyclopum Volcanus ardens visit officinas. nunc decet aut viridi nitidum caput impedire myrto aut flore, terrae quem ferunt solutae, nunc et in umbrosis Fauno decet immolare lucis, seu poscat agna sive malit haedo. pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas regumque turris, o beate Sesti, vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam; iam te premet nox fabulaeque Manes et domus exilis Plutonia; quo simul mearis, nec regna vini sortiere talis nec tenerum Lycidan mirabere, quo calet iuventus nunc omnis et mox virginis tepebunt. Harsh winter is melting away in the welcome change to spring & zephyrs, Winches are pulling down dry-bottomed ships, The cattle no longer like the steading, the ploughman does not hug the fire And meadows are not white with hoar-frost. Venus of Cythera leads on the dance beneath a hanging moon, And the lovely Graces, linking arms with Nymphs, Shake the ground with alternate feet while burning Vulcan Visits the grim foundries of the Cyclopes. Now is the time to oil the hair and bind the head with green myrtle Or flowers born of the earth now freed from frost; Now too it is time to sacrifice to Faunus in shady groves Whether he asks a lamb or prefers a kid.