James Brockway (21 October 1916 – 15 December 2000) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

poet and translator, who was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

and migrated to

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, where he died.

Biography

The youngest son of a Birmingham industrialist, Brockway joined the civil service in 1935 and the following year went to study at the London School of Economics.Wolfgang Görtschacher, "Contemporary Views on the Little Magazine Scene" (includes interview with Brockway by Görtschacher), Salzburg, ''Poetry Salzburg'', 2000. By 1940 he had joined the R.A.F. and during the war saw active service in Africa, Egypt, Arabia and Burma, achieving the rank of flight lieutenant. In 1946 he emigrated to the Netherlands, where he had made friends, and there he began to translate English novels into Dutch, including works by

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and

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His first poetry collection, ''No Summer Song'', appeared in 1949. He also contributed widely to Dutch newspapers and literary periodicals and, from 1960 onwards, was publishing English translations of modern Dutch poets and placing them in British literary magazines. In 1964 he moved back to England, continuing his literary work there until 1970, when he returned to the Netherlands. By the late 1990s he had placed at least 700 translations of Dutch poetry in English-language magazines. In 1966 he received the

Martinus Nijhoff Martinus Nijhoff (20 April 1894, in The Hague – 26 January 1953, in The Hague) was a Dutch poet and essayist. He studied literature in Amsterdam and law in Utrecht. His debut was made in 1916 with his volume ''De wandelaar'' ("The wanderer"). F ...

Prize for translation and in 1997 he was knighted by the Dutch government for his services to literature. His second poetry collection, ''A Way of Getting Through'', appeared in 1995 and his last, ''The Brightness In Between'', was published shortly before his death in 2000. Some of the poets whose work he translated into English include

Rutger Kopland Rutger Kopland (born Rudi van den Hoofdakker) (4 August 1934, Goor – 11 July 2012, Glimmen) was a Dutch poet who gained great popularity for his "accessible, thoughtful style, his mild irony, his sentimentality" and whose collections sold over 2 ...

, Anton Korteweg, M. Vasalis,

Hans Lodeizen Hans Lodeizen (20 July 1924 – 26 July 1950), born Johannes August Frederik Lodeizen, was a Dutch poet. He was the author of one book of poems (''The Wallpaper Within'', 1949) and a quantity of miscellaneous work. Despite his short life and mod ...

Gerrit Achterberg Gerrit Achterberg (20 May 1905 – 17 January 1962) was a Dutch poet. His early poetry concerned a desire to be united with a beloved in death. Achterberg was born in Nederlangbroek in the Netherlands as the third son of a family of eight chi ...

Remco Campert Remco Campert (28 July 1929 – 4 July 2022) was a Dutch author, poet and columnist. Early years Remco Wouter Campert was born in The Hague, son of writer and poet Jan Campert, author of the poem ''De achttien dooden'', and actress Joekie Bro ...

, Tom van Deel, J. C. Bloem and Patty Scholten. Kopland in particular was a poet with whose work he had had a special affinity with since the 1980s, and had enjoyed a close working collaboration with him.

Legacy

After his death, the Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature inaugurated a biennial award, ''The Brockway Prize'', for the translation of Dutch poetry; the first award was made in 2005. The prize is awarded for a body of work and the target language changes on a rotating basis. English-language winners have been Francis R. Jones in 2005,

Judith Wilkinson Judith Wilkinson is a British poet and translator, living in Groningen, the Netherlands. She is known for her translations of Dutch and Flemish poetry into English. She has translated the works of Toon Tellegen, Miriam Van hee, Menno Wigman and H ...

in 2013, and David Colmer in 2021. Additionally a ''Brockway Workshop'' has also been set up, to run every two years, offering more practical support to international poetry translators.

Selected bibliography

*''No Summer Song'', London, Fortune Press, 1949 (poetry). *''The Prospect and the River'', London, Jackson's Arm, 1987 (translations of Kopland). *''A World Beyond Myself'', London, Enitharmon, 1991 (translations of Kopland). *''Under the Apple Tree'', Leiden, 1994 (translations of Kopland). *''Anton Korteweg'', Amsterdam, 1994 (translations of Korteweg). *''A Way of Getting Through'', Ware, Rockingham Press, 1995 (poetry). *''Singers Behind Glass'', Lincoln, Jackson's Arm, 1995 (translations of eight 20th-century Dutch poets). *''The Brightness In Between'', Ware, Rockingham Press, 2000 (poetry).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brockway, James 1916 births 2000 deaths 20th-century English poets Dutch–English translators English emigrants to the Netherlands English male poets English translators Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands 20th-century English male writers English male non-fiction writers 20th-century English translators Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Royal Air Force officers