The Flemish biologist Dirk Draulans held back on TV on Sunday Buitenhof a flaming argument against the way in which man treats nature. In a kind of verbal rapid fire – Draulans speaks faster than God can listen – he made short work of man as the destroyer of the earth.
“You can invest heavily in nature conservation,” he said, among other things, “but it won’t work if you don’t get nitrogen emissions under control.” And: “For about fifty years, since the ‘great progress’ after the Second World War and all those big agricultural plans, agriculture has been turned into something that is completely unfriendly to nature.”
Finally, he drew attention to the song ‘Earth’ by Boudewijn de Groot from his new album Wind springs: “A beautiful song.” It receives more favorable reactions in Belgium than in the Netherlands; I had never heard it myself.
„Earth is too good”, sings De Groot. „Yet when it overwhelms her/ She punishes our madness/ With hail and insects/ Our crops are ruined/ With more than seven plagues/ She will harass man/ For without mercy/ She will judge her/ And count our dead/ Is all we have left.”
The earth as a goddess of vengeance that takes man to graze – it is a beautiful, literary image, even if it does not quite correspond to reality because the earth unfortunately has nothing to do. The song reminded me of the work of Neil Young, who has been warning in his songs since the 1960s about the destructive influence of man on nature. Also his latest album, World Recordscontains numerous examples of this, such as ‘Love Earth’ and ‘The World (Is in Trouble Now)’.
Already on his first album, Neil Young, from 1968, he sang an environmentally conscious song: ‘Here We Are In the Years’. Sjoerd de Jong, NRCeditor and a great Neil Young connoisseur, pointed that out to me. Together with René Zwaap, De Jong made Dutch translations – often pleasantly free – of a large number of Young’s songs. A hell of a job, it seems to me, because Young is an erratic lyricist who alternates fine inventions with clumsy lines, as if he doesn’t have the patience to think it over.
‘Here We Are In The Years’ is called ‘In our time’ by De Jong and Zwaap. It is about young city people who go on a carefree holiday to the sea. Young sarcastically wrote: “Now that the holidays have come/ They can relax and watch the sun/ Rise above all the beautiful things they’ve done.” De Jong and Zwaap translated: „Now that the holidays begin again / Can we lean into the wind / Watch how / We blinded ourselves / Blinded ourselves.” Young ends with: „So the subtle face is a loser this time around/ Here we are in the years/ Where the showman shifts the gears/ Lives become careers/ Children cry in fear/ ‘Let us out of here‘.”
De Jong and Zwaap end more violently in their translation: „So the earth soft / Lost / Dirty and raped / Welcome to our time / Full of bluff, deceit and regret / Swindlers in chalk / Youth sings far and wide / Don’t lose us now.”
If I may also close: in those closing lines I would rather stay closer to Young. „Children cry distressed / get us out of here.”
Boudewijn de Groot (78), Neil Young (77), Sjoerd de Jong (62), René Zwaap (61) – never too old to learn.
A version of this article also appeared in the December 7, 2022 newspaper