One of the things that I love about Antwerpen is the linguistic abilities of the majority of its inhabitants and when you add that together with the 165 nationalities found here, you have a melting pot of peoples and language.
The city had the first poem from Antwerpen's new city poet printed as a door-hanging pamphlet in six languages ... Nederlands, French, Arabic, Yiddish, Polish and English.
Nieuwstad 14
I was a guest who stayed too long and sounded different,
but went quite nicely with the room. Not unlike
a floor lamp that eventually received the key.
I was not unsociable, and surrounding me
the table was less empty. But still no one refrained
from sometimes pointing to my tongue, my ground.
Then unexpectedly they called me other,
sent me packing, when I'd just begun
to grow accustomed to the air and thinking
that I'd won a heart as well. But nothing could be
further from the truth. From time to time
my chair was looked at, sounding out if I
had started to take root. I didn't speak and thought
the screeching of the gulls an ill portent. What was it
that I sat inside and yet still stood outside.
Bart Moeyaert, 2006
Bart's website offers a four language choice and is worth visiting.
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