Il-Ħamis 28 u l-Ġimgħa 29 ta’ Jannar 2016, qrajt ma’ Rita Saliba Janneke Spoelstra u Hein Jaap Hilarides, żewġ poeti mill-Friżja, fin-naħa ta’ fuq tal-Olanda, bħala parti mill-proġett ta’ Poeżiji fl-Ixkejjer tal-Patata mmexxi minn Inizjamed, il-Fondazzjoni Valletta 2018, u Leeuwarden-Fryslân 2018. Iż-żjara taż-żewġ poeti Friżjani, u magħhom ġurnalista u rappreżentant minn Leeuwarden-Fryslân 2018 saret bl-inizjattiva tal-Ambaxxata Olandiża f’Malta.
Il-Ħamis qrajna flimkien waqt attività fid-dar tal-Ambaxxatur Olandiż, Joop Nijssen. L-ewwel qrajt “Roazemarynblêd” bil-Malti biss, u mbagħad qrajt “Inkontinenza” u “Id-Dijaframma tal-Jiem” bil-Malti u bl-Ingliż (traduzzjoni ta’ Albert Gatt). Waqt il-qari ta’ “Dijaframma” bil-Malti kont akkumpanjat minn Hein Jaap Hilarides fuq il-pjanu. L-istess programm ta’ qari għamilnieh il-Ġimgħa filgħaxija f’Palazzo de la Salle, tas-Soċjetà Maltija tal-Arti, fi Triq ir-Repubblika, il-Belt.
Il-Ġimgħa filgħodu għamilna attività mal-istudenti tal-ħames u s-sitt klassi tal-Primarja tal-Qrendi, li kienet suċċess kbir.
Sadattant, il-Ġimgħa filgħaxija stess fil-Friżja, kien hemm attività fil-Friżja li fiha nstemgħu l-vuċijiet tiegħi u ta’ Claudia Gauci qed naqra poeżija. Dan huwa r-rapport qasir ta’ Janneke Spoelstra dwar din l-attività:
Geart Tigchelaar tells me that playing the voice-recordings of your Maltese poems at Literêr Tydskrift Ensafh’s Grutte Gedichtejûn last Friday went well! Cornelis van der Wal took care of it and Geart read the English translations of your poems.
Boven v.l.n.r. Hein Jaap Hilarides, Adrian Grima. Onder v.l.n.r. Janneke Spoelstra, Rita Saliba.
This evening, Friday 29th January, at 7.00pm at Palazzo de la Salle (Malta Society of Arts) in Republic Street, two Dutch and two Maltese poets will be reading their poetry in Maltese, Frisian and English as part of the Poetry in Potato Bags project.
This event is being organized by the Embassy of the Netherlands and Inizjamed in collaboration with the Valletta 2018 Foundation and Leeuwarden-Fryslân 2018. Entrance to this event is free.
The Dutch Frisian-language poets invited to Malta are Hein Jaap Hilarides, who is also a musician, and Janneke Spoelstra. The Maltese writers are Adrian Grima and Rita Saliba. Michael Caruana from Qrendi, who visits Dutch potato farmers regularly, will be speaking during the evening about his experiences as a potato farmer and exporter in Malta.
This event is part of the run up to the 2018 European Capital of Culture of both Valletta and Leeuwarden. Malta has a longstanding relationship with Leeuwarden/Fryslân that dates back to around 1850. A rather remarkable food item has been the matchmaker between these regions – the potato. Both Malta and Fryslân (province of the Netherlands, with Leeuwarden as capital) are officially bilingual and have a large treasure of poets and poetry.
Every year around the end of September the first seed potatoes leave Fryslân and are transported to Malta. In March, the full-grown potatoes travel back to Fryslân, and are sold in Dutch supermarkets together with a poem from Malta.
In the meantime, on Friday evening in Friesland, voice recordings of poems by Claudia Gauci and by myself were played during a public event. This is Janneke Spoelstra’s short account:
Geart Tigchelaar tells me that playing the voice-recordings of your Maltese poems at Literêr Tydskrift Ensafh’s Grutte Gedichtejûn last Friday went well! Cornelis van der Wal took care of it and Geart read the English translations of your poems.
adriangrima.org 