You, Now! (Gedicht in steen)

About this artwork.

The poem U, Nu! By Joost van den Vondel was placed in the clinker paving on the occasion of the redesign of the Vondelstraat.

The whole poem actually consists of these three letters. It is a so-called palindrome: a text that you can read from left to right and vice versa, without changing the meaning. With this poem, officially the shortest poem according to the Guinness Book of Records, Joost van den Vondel won a poetry competition in 1620.

Joost van den Vondel was a Dutch poet and playwright who lived from 1587 to 1679. Well-known works of his are Gijsbrecht van Aemstel and Lucifer.

Apparently Vondel liked to joke, as evidenced by his proposal to have the following text adorned on his tombstone:

'Here Vondel is leaning without mourning. He died of the cold.'

Incidentally, the spell did not end up on his gravestone in De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam.

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Bureau Hoekzema
  Joost van den Vondel

• District
  Haren en omgeving

• Year of creation
  2013

• Art type
  Art in the road surface, floor or ground

• Material
  Brick

• Dimensions
  lengte 14,00 m x breedte 2,60 m