De Tsjerne. Jaargang 9

[p. 254]

Yn 'e Fierrekiker:
Op jacht nei in alde Gryk.

Nêst in jiermannich hat de Skotske nasionalist, dichter en journalist Douglas Young in stúdzjereis troch Europa makke en dêrby ek Fryslân oandien. Syn doel wie it yn alderhande bibliotheken neisneupen fan útjeften fan de hast forgetten Gryksk-klassike dichter Theognis, fan hwa't op 'e P.B. to Ljouwert ek in edysje húsmannet. Syn wittenskiplik-kulturele trip brocht de jonge Skot yn 'e kunde mei gâns minsken en tastannen. Syn oantinkens dêroan hat Young dellein yn in boek Chasing an Ancient Greek. Fryslân hat dŝr in apart haedstik yn krige. Troch syn greate bilangstelling foar tael en litteratuer fan Europeeske minderheden brocht de skriuwer it praet yn Hollân gauris op Fryslân en de Friezen. De réaksjes fan guon Hollannerse en inkelde fan Young's yndrukken fan Fryslân sels, binne tige nijsgjirrich.

‘While we stuck to art the conversation achieved, it seemed to me, a reasonable balance between international culture and Dutch particularism. But it was rather otherwise when it came to be mentioned that my next destination was Leeuwarden in Frisia, and that I was much interested in the Frisian national movement. Interest in such a movement seemed rather absurd to the good Professor Tielrooy, who is Professor of French in the University of Amsterdam and a zealot for French culture, especially the rationalist, radical-socialist strain of it. He is secretary of the Dutch Centre of the International P.E.N. Club, and had been sent to a concentration camp by the Germans during their occupation, so I was not surprised to find him rather cold on the subject of Frisian culture, as if any mention of such a thing necessarily carried with it subversive separatist implications. The French one finds similary chilly on the topic of Breton nationalism, even of the least political variety.

Professor van Thienen, on the other hand. seemed to have been rather interested himself in Frisian particularism and friendly towards it. He observed that the Frisians were the most upright people in the Netherlands, and had been the most effective element of the Resistance movement against the German invaders. With this our hosts unhesitatingly agreed. But Madame Tielrooy simply could not understand why anyone should wish to speak or write so minor a language as Frisian, still less why any intelligent foreigner should encourage them to do so. I ventured to observe that in relation to the great world languages Dutch itself was little more than in minority language like Frisian: but that was no argument for the Dutch abandoning it for High German or for French or English. Hereupon Tielrooy burst out that a small nation which did not familiarise itself with at least one of the great world languages was merely a set of ‘natives’; and remarked that the Flemings, in bi-lingual Belgium, were a much more civilised and cosmopolitan people thans the sluggish and myopic Dutch, or words to that effect....’

[p. 255]

‘About a dozen leaders of Frisian culture and politics had gathered to meet me, and, rather to my surprise, started to talk politics before literature. The reason, no doubt, was that their political movement is much more recent, and so more in their minds, than the literary. An elderly retired post office official with a monocle began by impressing on me the fact that the Frisians had from the fourth to the ninth centuries A.D. a great naval empire extending from Belgium to Scandinavia. I suggested that the vagueness of its boundaries might be an obstacle to its restoration, but was assured there was no such aim in the contemporary political agitation. On the contrary, even the most extreme Frisian patriot was whole-heartedly content with allegiance to the Netherlands Kingdom....’

‘In Dutch life the Frisians have never occupied any such predominance as the Scots have been fabled to usurp in England, with so many Prime Minister, Archbishops of Canterbury, Viceroys of India, heads of the bureaucracy, and centre forwards. The only occupations in which Frisans are reputed to gain a disproportion of the places are teaching and policeservice. This may be due to their admitted characteristics, uprightness, energy and perseverance. Long may they flourish, with the native cultures that bred their special qualities. Surely no reform of Europe would be worth having that wipes out all the stimulating national and regional differences through which the human species evolves....’