At Festival Heart De Deining, hosts Lin An Phoa and Daan Doesborgh, together with Artistic Director Sabine Pater, officially opened the festival. With music by San Cha, a conversation with theatre-maker George Tobal about the power of art, and poetry by Sanne van Balen, the starting signal was given for ten days of Oerol.
During the opening, Sanne van Balen performed her poem Oerol Is a Language: an ode to the island, to the words that belong there, and to the words you bring with you yourself.
Oerol Is a Language — Sanne van Balen
Oerol is a language
take a handful of loose vowels as a foundation and shake the sand from them
wyt or wiid, wiet will do as well
choose a subject, a verb
I you you she he we
then come the verbs to be conjugated, spread them out
I foeg, you foegst, we foege
press down firmly with articles
de dy it ut
make yourself at home, they say
sliinsk, snokker, simmerblomke
you do not understand it
sân, wetter, wyuwk, horp
how can you feel at home in a language
that is everywhere, from the moment you step into the sea, it begins already
from the moment the mainland becomes the mainland
and what kind of language, perhaps one of giving and taking, of
I ebb and you ebb and he floods and we flood
a language is how you carry a home in a suitcase or a handcart
a rucksack just a little too heavy but that is alright, a home may weigh something
a language you can wear, as roomy as a poncho, the fleece of a sheep
a language like a circle, not a plain but a coastline, stretched out and laid along the horizon, resting on the tip of your tongue
a language you brought with you yourself, alongside the sun cream in your bag, you had forgotten it for a moment but it turns out you still understand something, the wind cycles beside you today
a language that sweeps through the night like a lighthouse, beam after beam across a cheek, the northern side of a dune, softly saying “you’re quite something”
a language made up of tent pegs, guy ropes and a fleece jacket, a bank card
a language of names, I introduce myself in the second person, you introduce yourself as someone else, who inhabits my sentences
a language disguised as a question
a language pretending to be today
today your home is an island
and today is a space
today that space is everywhere there is a word for
a better word for space is environment
just as the universe is not finite but around something, like an embrace, an arm around a waist, a hand upon your hand, like a gust of wind on your lips, I care for you,
there is giving in environment too
make yourself at home, they say
they also say: feeling at home in a language only begins
when you absorb the world expressed within it
I take, you take, we take
I jo, you jogst, we jogen
they say: there is a world at your feet
and you say: but people already take so much,
an island
is not an island
it is important to know when you are too much
and also when you are too little yourself
surrounded by others
being yourself as an environment
it is important to know which words are needed then
sliinsk, snokker, simmerblomke
an environment has emerged within our language
one you try to fill with words
lêns
length — long
rúmte
hole — from gatsjepan, the sieve that strains seawater
emptiness, a void
you cannot fall into silence
if we can explain everything to one another
if we can say everything to one another
if we can surround one another
is that home
is it not already everywhere?
