Ten poets from The Netherlands & Flanders wrote a poem inspired by one of Tony Mafia’s paintings: Albert Hagenaars, Paul Gellings, Joris Iven, Hannie Rouweler, Annmarie Sauer, Lucienne Stassaert, Wim van Til, Rose Vandewalle, Willie Verhegghe & Roger Nupie. Nupie’s poem, The Female Bather, was inspired by Tony Mafia’s work with the same title (reproduced on the back side of this edition). His poem was translated into English by John Irons. Bilingual edition (  Dutch & English), Demer Press, 2009. From a review on "Black Sun" by Miller Caldwell (Scotland): The Female Bather - Roger Nupie: Warming the blood, the third eye sheds light on the dream and the daydream - a far cry from the mundane.

THE FEMALE BATHER translation: John Irons Am I here, bare room, iron bedstead, window that opens onto nothing & nowhere? Am I the beast (from your daydream, nightmare, twilight fear) that dives, washes a miserable mystery away at the sight, the chill of the cold blue, hesitates before diving into a barren pool, sees the world with that eye, that dismal, hesitating one? Am I the one who, in the wall by the bed in a vague past carved the figure ten, the hour or number of days past or still to come, I or someone before & just as isolated: magic sign, underlying sheet, obscure symbolism? No, no! I’ve just been indicated, intimated by the artist with the fastest brushstroke in the West. I am here, bare room, iron bedstead, window that opens onto nothing & nowhere, a shadow, a memory of a woman bathing, the female bather, dreaming of le grand bleu. Your vision is your daydream, nightmare, twilight fear. but how suspicious, how misleading the world looks seen with your eye.