Luuk Gruwez, Belgium

Por: Luuk Gruwez, Belgium
Traductor: Ria Leigh-Loohuizen

Fat people

I
Fat people know everything about love,
up to the remotest corners of their body,
the catacombs of their own flesh.

Their belly is the foreign country where they live,
continuously yearning for the slimmest waists
that make their mouths water like pastry.

Nobody is more sincerely sad,
so cheerfully mournful in those distant guts,
those far toes and bulbous buttocks,

as if they just consist of remnants:
less than a hundred kilos nothing
that nobody will ever want.

Luuk Gruwez was born in Courtrai, Belgium, on August 9, 1953. He is a poet, playwright, narrator and journalist. Works: Stofzuigergedichten (Vacuum Cleaner Poems), 1973; Ach, wat zacht geliefkoos om een mild verdriet (Ah, what a soft Fondling for a mild Sorrow), 1977; Een huis om dakloos in te zijn (A House to be Homeless in), 1981; De feestelijke verliezer (The festive Loser), 1985; Dikke mensen (Fat People), 1990; Vuile manieren (Dirty Manners), 1994; Bandeloze gedichten (Riotous Poems), 1996; Dieven en geliefden (Thiefs and Lovers), 2000; and Allemansgek (All Men's Fool), 2004. Works in prose: Het land van de wangen (The Country of the Cheeks) and Het bal van opa Bing (The Ball of Grandpa Bing), 1994; and In Een stenen moeder (A Mother of Stone), 2004. In 1995 he wrote Lucky Star, a monologue for Dutch and Flemish television, and in 1996 Een bijzonder bevallig paar (An extremely charming Couple), a television drama. A collection of his columns appeared in 1999: Slechte gedachten (Bad Thoughts), and in 2002 De maand van Marie (The month of Mary), 4 monologues by women from different generations.