Kamali/a18
Luctor et Emergo: I struggle and emerge
Did my grandfather have the feeling he had struggled and emerged?
(did those feelings lead him to put this saying above their gate?)
What was the significance of this saying?
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Tue, Jun 16, 2020, 9:00 PM
Hello dear grandpa,
How are you? Dad told me you’re slowly getting a bit better. Maybe if the borders open this summer I could still come and visit you.
While watching your movies I noticed something.
Above the gate of grandma's and your old house was (maybe still is) the words: “luctor et emergo"
I was wondering if you chose this text and what it meant for you at the time. You may not remember which is also understandable!
I hope Bingo comes to cuddle you every day and that you will feel great again soon.
Lots of love,
Kamali
Tue, Jun 16, 2020, 10:30 PM
Dear dear Kamali
Thank you for your letter and interest ... Hope you are doing well !! Some days are a little better than the other .. And so we continue to struggle .. I am having a good time with Bingo ... He is my faithful companion ... Never lets me down. And always wants to stay near me. He would prefer to sleep next to me, if I'd allow it. The house at Arikokweg 18 that we initially lived in and held in practice was owned by an Internist in the first half of the last century - a very well-known internist, who was from Zeeland and that explains the saying above the gate. He had it built and lived in it until he retired to St. Maarten. I was of course very fortunate that when I arrived in Curaçao with Grandma Phine (June 1972) I had no house and then - to my great luck - the house, which was then rented by a Dutch general practitioner - from the owner (Dr. vdSar the internist) who had already moved to St. Maarten at the time). The people of Zeeland always had to fight against the sea (most recently in 1953) when it was decided to do the hydraulic engineering BIG WORK - the aflsuitdijk "I struggle and overcome“ that is the meaning of the saying and the general saying of ZEELAND .. I had to fight a battle back then because by law there was a rule that said if you rented a house and there is someone who buys the property, you may not occupy that property as long as you - the tenant - have no other option. That law reads "" Sale does not break rent " But luck was on our side again because that colleague found a building - also nearby and therefore very suitable for his work - and left the building very neglected, We had it renovated: a very nice driveway to my doctor's office and beautiful plants on both sides. But later on when I retired we rented a piece of land next to it and had the current house (Arikokweg 16 AB) built there. We moved to the current building that we live in before the end of the 20th century. If you want to know more I will answer you to the best of my ability !! Hope that things can get better with the relaxation of the Corona measures ..
P / S. Above that gate where the saying is also grew a cactus species popularly called "Dama di Anochi" because that plant, when it bloomed, which it always did in the night - large beautiful soft yellow calyxes with up to 100 stamens and very soft wonderful fragrance But it was short-lived, because the next day it was already limp ... Hope to read from you again soon
Grandpa Jules
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Dr van der Sar
https://www.ntvg.nl/system/files/publications/1983115570001a.pdf
"He later said that, having grown up on one of the islands in Zuid-Holland,
which had dikes and water on which ships sailed, he (as a young boy)
developed a desire to practice medicine outside the Netherlands.
Storms and the threat of flooding have likely had a profound influence on his character:
his tremendous self-discipline, the will to work very hard and his commitment to defend
and even strengthen the defined field of internal medicine."
Dama di Anochi
Found footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yHWZdKQMOc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4uBdLysvGI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJmxKx-0bBM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hqH6Hq7lE0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cLp0rK-qew
Upon looking for more information about this cactus (secretly I was hoping I'd come across a story or metaphor of some kind) I found out about a book with a collection of poems titled: dama di anochi.
I've been trying to read some poetry in the moving images of my grandfather. Or rather: I'm always trying to read some poetry in everything around me, so to see it coming back to me through this arbitrary search for a flower speaks to me.
They have the book in the library. It's in papiamentu, which I'm planning to take classes in but until then I think it would be most interesting to translate it with/through my father.
Attempt to translate the right piece of text:
"Elis Juliana gets a translation of a poem that has been included in 'De Muze kent geen Babel' by Frank Martinus Arion
Zwarte Engelen
Rustend in moeders schoot
vroeg het kind: / Mamita, zijn
er zwarte engelen ook? / En wat
kon de moeder anders zeggen
dan: / Slaap mijn kind, slaap
zacht.
Black Angels
Resting in mother's lap
the child asked: / Mamita, are
there black angels too? / And what
could the mother say other
than: / Sleep my child, sleep
tight.
I worked on this poem for two years.
I find it difficult to give an abstract idea in a few words.
I call working on a poem "sieving"
Black angels, I couldn't figure that out.
It eventually became a poem with an unsolved problem.
My most personal collection is Dama di Anochi.
It is intended as an incentive for women to also start writing, hence the pseudonym Micha Rofaldo.
And the bundle that is now at the printer is also personal.
Twenty, thirty very short, spicy poems. The title will be "Colo Colo di Niwea".
It's the funchicrust that remains in the cooking pot. As a child, you could chew on it so nicely when it was dried."