Germain Droogenbroodt, was born 11 September 1944 in Rollegem, the Flemish part of Belgium. In 1987 he moved to the Mediterranean artist village of Altea and integrated in Spanish literary life.
Germain Droogenbroodt is an internationally appreciated poet, translator, publisher and promoter of modern international poetry. He wrote short stories and literary reviews, but mainly poetry, so thirteen poetry books, published in 28 countries. He translated – he speaks six languages - more than thirty collections of German, Italian, Spanish, Latin American, English and French poetry, including anthologies of Bertolt Brecht, Mahmud Darwish, Reiner Kunze, Miguel Hernández, José Ángel Valente, Francisco Brines, Albert and rendered Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Persian and Korean poetry into Dutch.
As founder and editor of the Belgian publishing house POINT Editions (Poetry International) he published more than eighty collections of mainly modern, international poetry. In 1996 he set up a new poetic movement, called neo-sensacionismo with the famous Chinese poets Bei Dao and Duo Duo
Germain Droogenbroodt organised and co-organised several international poetry festivals in Spain. He is vice president of the Academy Mihai Eminescu, organizing the International Poetry Festival Mihai Eminescu in Craiova, Romania, co-founder and advisor of JUNPA (Japan Universal Poets Association), artistic advisor of the Italian movement Poetry & Discovery, and founding president of the Spanish cultural foundation ITHACA. He also collaborates with the Italian poetry publication Margutte.
Several famous artists made paintings and sculptures inspired by his poetry as international composers composed music to poems, such as the Dutch composer Bart Bakker who composed the “Germain Droogenbroodt cycle”, 12 pieces for flute.
Germain Droogenbroodt is yearly invited to give recitals and conferences at universities and at the most prestigious poetry festivals around the world. He was nominated for the Nobel prize of Literature 2017.
Eagle
The ravens fly in swarms
the eagle flies alone
Luchino Visconti
So close to heaven
flies the eagle
lonely
as the poet
who patiently waits
the arrival of a verse
till the pen
scratches finally a few a few lines
still doubting
the sense
the idleness
of naming.
From “In the Stream of time, Meditations in the Himalayas”
Doubt
Each poem
leaves greater void behind
and the fear
nothing will come anymore
this
has been the last fruit
the source is exhausted
but then again
promptly and unexpected
emerges from despair
a timid word
the first line
of a new poem.
From “In the Stream of time, Meditations in the Himalayas”
Tender love poem
The wind blew through your hair
and I was jealous
because the wind alike
I couldn’t caress all your hair.
from: “Unshadowed Light”
SEARCHING FOR LIGHT
To Hugo Mujica
Although the roots
searching for water
embrace each other
and the branches
searching for light
draw apart
the branches
will encounter the light
but the roots
nothing but darkness.
From: “The Ephemeral Flower of Time”
