Battleground

Listen to Thomas McGuire’s introduction and recitation of the poem in Dutch.

The gloaming falls like ground.
In Holland lopes a hound.
A hound with yellow teeth.
He roves throughout the earth
a giant sable hound.

We’re lying in the round.
No longer fused together.
What bound us to each other
died between our teeth.
The gloaming falls like ground.

Slagveld

De schemer valt als grond.
In Holland loopt een hond.
Een hond met gele tanden.
Er gaat door alle landen
een grote zwarte hond.

Wij liggen in het rond.
Niet langer van elkander.
Wat …

by Gerrit Achterberg, translated by Thomas McGuire | February 11, 2022

How Holland Is Mourning Flight MH17

The Dutch Are More Comfortable With Intimate Remembrances Than National Calls to Arms

by Russell Shorto | July 24, 2014

A cultural conundrum that I struggled to comprehend during my six years of living in Amsterdam concerned the Dutch attitude toward celebrities. They are passionate about their own celebrities—far more …

Could Dutch-Style Soccer Unclog L.A.’s Freeways?

I Think It's a Possibility. But It's Not the Only Reason Why I’m Teaching the Game to Young Angelenos.

by Bas Beukema | April 9, 2014

As a young boy, I spent every free moment playing soccer. Except for the obligatory going to school and eating meals, my free time was spent juggling a ball between …

Russell Shorto

The Man Who Put the Dutch Back on the U.S. Map

by Andrés Martinez | February 13, 2013

Russell Shorto, the American writer who has wound up becoming an unlikely cultural ambassador for the Netherlands, flinches uncomfortably when I say he must be a national hero, but then …

The Netherlands