Gysbert Japiks or Japicx or Japix (1603–1666) was a West Frisian writer, poet,

schoolmaster The word schoolmaster, or simply master, refers to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British independent schools, both secondary and preparatory, and a few Indian boarding schools (such as The Doon School) that were modelled after B ...

, and

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds. In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...

Life

Japiks was born in

Bolsward Bolsward (, West Frisian: ''Boalsert'') is a city in Súdwest-Fryslân in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. Bolsward has a population of just under 10,200. It is located 10 km W.N.W. of Sneek. History The town is founded on thr ...

, Friesland, as Gysbert Japiks Holckema or Holkema. Japiks used his

patronym A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...

and not his surname in his writing. Japiks was a school teacher by profession. In 1656, three of his children had died of the

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

and Japiks' eye sight had been affected by the disease. Except for his son Salves, he would lose all his children and his wife to disease. In 1666 Japiks died of the plague. Japiks started writing from an early age. He wrote in

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, Frisian and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. He admired the

poets

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

and

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

, but was also an enthusiast for his own West Frisian ''memmetaal'', or

mother tongue A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

. His first known poetry in dates back from 1639. In his early works Japiks portrayed the life of rural Friesland, and was characterised by excessive

alliteration Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...

. Much of his work were translations and reworkings of Latin poets, but also the Dutch poets

Vondel Joost van den Vondel (; 17 November 1587 – 5 February 1679) was a Dutch poet, writer and playwright. He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century. His plays are the ones from that period that are still most ...

and

Constantijn Huygens Sir Constantijn Huygens, Lord of Zuilichem ( , , ; 4 September 159628 March 1687), was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer. He was also secretary to two Princes of Orange: Frederick Henry and William II, and the father of the scientist C ...

featured prominently in his work. His first published work in book form was ''Friessche Tjerne'' (1640). In 1644, Franciscus Junius was researching Old German languages, and visited Japiks for work and information about the West Frisian language. Around 1650, Japiks and Abbe Freerks Gabbema started a letter exchange most of which still exists in which Gabbema encouraged Japiks to publish and avoid

Dutch orthography Dutch orthography uses the Latin alphabet. The spelling system is issued by government decree and is compulsory for all government documentation and educational establishments. Legal basis In the Netherlands, the official spelling is regulated ...

in his Frisian writings. His publisher Rintjus however was reluctant to publish in Frisian. His work was the most notable in that language of his day and had the effect of elevating Frisian to literary status.Roderick Jellema, ''Country fair: poems from Friesland since 1945 in Frisian and English'' (Eerdmans, 1985), pp. xiv–xv Japiks' orthography with a much more nuanced and phonetically correct spelling which is significantly different from the Dutch orthography, is very similar to the current official spelling. The poems of Japiks were published in ''Friessche Tjerne'' (1640) and also posthumously in ''Fryske Rijmlerye'' (1668).

Songs

Japiks's Frisian songs were

contrafacta In vocal music, contrafactum (or contrafact, pl. contrafacta) is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this procedure (sometimes referred to as ''adaptation''), date back ...

to well-known tunes by composers such as

Goudimel Claude Goudimel (c. 1514 to 1520 – between 28 August and 31 August 1572) was a FrenchPaul-André Gaillard, "Goudimel, Claude", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1 ...

Bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

, and

Pierre Guédron Pierre Guédron (c. 1570 in Châteaudun – c. 1620 in Paris), was a French singer and composer known for writing ''Air de cour, Airs de cour'' (including ''Cessés mortels de soupirer''). Guédron's ''Est-ce Mars'' (1613) was especially popular a ...

. A selection from them was recorded by Frisian singers and

Camerata Trajectina Camerata Trajectina is a Dutch early music ensemble (in English, the word, " camerata," generally means a choir or small chamber orchestra). The ensemble was founded in Utrecht (hence Latin ''trajectina''; of Utrecht) in 1974 by Jos van Veldhoven ...

in 2003.

Gysbert Japicx House

The house in which Gysbert Japiks was born, was bought in 1979 by his descendants Arjen Holkema and Trijntje Holkema-Slot and turned into a museum. The museum was opened 25 September 1997 by

Aad Nuis Adrianus "Aad" Nuis (18 July 1933 – 8 November 2007) was a Dutch politician of the Democrats 66 (D66) party and political scientist.d'Haen, Theo & Bertens, Hans (eds.) (1997) ''Closing the Gap: American Postmodern Fiction in Germany, Italy, Sp ...

, State Secretary of Education, Culture and Science. The House also contains the local tourist agency and a bookstore specializing in the Frisian language.

References

External links

Gysbert Japicx at Digital Library for Dutch Literature
(in Frisian and Dutch - ''Wirken'' available for free download)
Gysbert Japicx House
(in Dutch and Frisian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Japiks, Gysbert 1603 births 1666 deaths 17th-century deaths from plague (disease) Dutch male poets New Latin-language poets West Frisian-language writers People from Bolsward