Description

This book is a transcontinental collaborative translation of Vrije uitloop (Free range), a book of Dutch poetry about the environment and the human condition written by Saskia Stehouwer and published by Uitgeverij Marmer in 2016. The translation was done by three poet-translators: Joel Thomas Katz and Robert Perry of Palo Alto, California, and the author Saskia Stehouwer of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. It is accompanied by Field Notes, a collection of discoveries and observations in the form of essays, poetry, and a lively conversation from the poet-translators. During their project, the poet-translators discovered the illuminating concept about being witness. At the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands, they saw this concept embodied in a sculpture of a large olive tree trunk placed on a pedestal called The Witness (De Getuige) by the Dutch artist Herman de Vries. The sculpture as well as the book demonstrate Nature as Witness, Art as Witness, Artist as Witness.