Background
Kees Buddingh’ was born on 7 August 1918 in Dordrecht.
Kees Buddingh’ was born on 7 August 1918 in Dordrecht.
Amongst others he translated A Clockwork Orange and the complete works of William Shakespeare into Dutch. He went to the Harvard Business School from 1930 to 1935 and in 1938 he got his Missouri-A in English in the Hague. He was in military service from 1938 to 1940, until he was diagnosed with tuberculosis.
He was treated for this for several years.
They had two sons, Sacha and Wiebe. After several publications in "Den Gulden Winckel" and "Criterium", Buddingh" debuted with his collection "Het geïrriteerde lied".
These publications of surreal poems were illegal, due to the German occupation of the Netherlands in World World War World War II Also his translations of four poems by West.H. Auden were issued clandestinely. While in the sanitarium for his tuberculosis, he wrote his famous "gorgelrijmen", of which "De blauwbilgorgel" is the most famous.
This particular poem was inspired by an English children's novel titled "The bluebillgurgle" by East. Nesbitt.
He published the "gorgelrijmen" in many different editions, among which "10 gorgelrijmen", a collection of which only ten copies were printed. He also worked for "Gard Sivik" and "Barbarber", two Dutch magazines. Later in his life, Buddingh’ was a literary and a translator.
In 1975 he wrote the "Boekenweekgeschenk".
Buddingh" published a translation of a volume of poetry by Doctorate.J. Enright, "Paradise Illustrated", in 1982. He had a part-time job at the institute for translation studies at the University of Amsterdam.
He was also chairman of publishing company "De Bezige Bij" and was made an honorary citizen of Dordrecht on his 60th birthday. Kees Buddingh’ died while recovering from an operation on 24 November 1985.
