Five days after he came out of retirement, family, friends and representatives of cultural life in Drenthe said goodbye to Gerard Nijenhuis (1932 – 2023) on Saturday.
This happened at different locations. In the village church of Gieten, the literary significance of the man who started his working life as a minister and ended as a writer, poet and innkeeper in Bronneger was discussed.
Philosopher and author Joep Dohmen sketched a philosophical portrait in the church. He did this by reflecting on Nijenhuis’ ambivalent attitude to life in the areas of village and city, Drenthe and Dutch, nature and culture, man and woman, and the past and present.
“It is within these tensions and contradictions that the themes of language, time and tragedy keep recurring,” said Dohmen, who depicted the apparent melancholic Nijenhuis as an existentialist influenced by Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre. “Existentialism called him to make choices. That appealed to him enormously, perhaps because of his inability to choose.”
‘Poeting is fighting against meaninglessness’
Dohmen said that, despite the meaninglessness of existence, Nijenhuis tried to jump over himself ‘to try to make something of it’. He quoted the poet: “The creative process, poetry, is actually a struggle against meaninglessness. Capturing what passes, preserving what is good, even if that never quite works.”
Yet at Nijenhuis, life ultimately proved to be stronger than doctrine, Dohmen stated. “It is said that Gerard could not choose. But he has chosen. In my opinion, the happiness and love for Jan Gilhuis (Nijenhuis partner, ed.) has resolved his ambivalence and tragic attitude to life well. This is clearly evident in his later work.”
After Dohmen, a letter from Albertine Klunder-Hof was read in the Dorpskerk and Marga Kool, Ton Peters, Kasper Peters and Ria Westerhuis recited poems. Mischa van Huijstee read the very last poem written by Nijenhuis, Quiet room from June: ‘It’s as if I’m a die of the whole/ The world is not simple/ Veul came loose and rose into the open air/ This is the peace I sought for so long!’
Gerard Nijenhuis is buried at the general cemetery in Gieten, his native village.