Dutch poet, TV-presenter and translator.
Kees Buddingh’ was born on 7 August 1918 in the Riouwstraat 73 rood (today 47) Dordrecht. He went to the HBS from 1930 to 1935 and in 1938 he got his MO-A in English in the Hague (School voor Taal en Letterkunde). He was in military service from 1938 to May 1940. In 1942 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He was hospitalised from 1942-1943 and from 1947-1949 in Sanatorium Zonnegloren (crack of dawn) in Soest. In 1950 he married Christina “Stientje” van Vuren. They had two sons, Sacha and Wiebe.
After several publications in “Den Gulden Winckel” and “Criterium”, Buddingh’ debuted with his collection “Het geïrriteerde lied” (The irritated song, 1941). These publications of surreal poems were illegal, due to the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. 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”, a collection of which only ten copies were printed (paper was scarce during the war). 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 and A Clockwork Orange, together with his son Wiebe. Together with the illustrator Otto Dicke (3 May 1918, Dordrecht – 7 December 1984, Dordrecht) 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. He was also chairman of publishing company “De Bezige Bij” and was made an honorary citizen of Dordrecht on his 60th birthday.
Cees Buddingh’ died while recovering from an operation on 24 November 1985.
The C. Buddingh’-prijs of the Poetry International festival in Rotterdam is named after him.
His son Wiebe became the celebrated Dutch Harry Potter translator. Like his father, who translated Shakespeare into Dutch, Wiebe is aware of the difficult names, concepts and puns in the work of J.K. Rowling.
Link to Wikipedia