Nel Benschop

Nel Benschop (actually Nelly Anna Benschop ; born January 16, 1918 in The Hague ; † January 31, 2005 in Arnhem ) was a Dutch poet.

Life

Nel Benschop grew up in an Orthodox Calvinist family that had a tree nursery. From 1937, when she graduated from the "kweekschool", the school for primary school teachers, until 1981, when she retired, she was a teacher, at times at private schools. Twice she had fallen in love with a man who turned out to be already married. Because of their religious beliefs, such a relationship is a sin against the Ten Commandments was (Thou shalt not commit adultery) , she broke off these contacts without that they could get an intimate character. This brought Nel Benschop a lot of lovesickness, which she overcame through prayer and writing poetry. Later she tried successfully, based on her deep faith, to write little poems to strengthen and comfort other people. Recurring themes are the suffering, death and consolation of the Christian gospel.

Works

Nel Benschop's poetry has no literary value; she had no intention of writing literature either. Benschop himself called her poems: "Meditations on rhyme". Her poems are often read by mainly elderly people from Protestant-Christian circles, and are also recited in church services and at funerals.

Her most famous works are:

• Gouddraad uit vlas (gold thread from flax) (1967)
• De stem uit de wolk (The voice from the cloud) (1997)

A quote from "Gouddraad uit vlas"

Rust nu maar uit - je lifts je strijd gestreden;

ever het as een moedig one daraan.

How can you greet what ever lives?

En wie kan voelen, what does doorstaan ​​ever lift?

Translation:

Just rest - you have fought your fight;

you did it like a brave man.

Who can understand what you've suffered

And who can empathize with what you endured?

For a long time, up until around 1990, these lines were extremely popular as the start of Dutch funeral advertisements in newspapers. The first line in particular was carved into thousands of gravestones.