Trefossa, pen name of Henri Frans de Ziel (born Paramaribo

Paramaribo

Paramaribo is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 250,000 people, more than half of Suriname's population...

, January 15, 1916 – died Haarlem

Haarlem

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

, February 3, 1975) was a neoromantic writer in Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 and Sranan Tongo

Sranan Tongo

Sranan is a creole language spoken as a lingua franca by approximately 300,000 people in Suriname...

 from Suriname

Suriname

Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...

. He is best known for the Sranan Tongo stanzas of Suriname's National Anthem

God zij met ons Suriname

God zij met ons Suriname or Opo kondreman is the national anthem of Suriname. It has 2 verses: the first in Dutch and the second in Sranan Tongo.-External links:**...

.

He was an educator and lived in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 from 1953 to 1956. Upon his return to Suriname he was part of the editorial staff of the magazines Tongoni (1958-1959) and Soela (1962-1964). He also served briefly as the director-librarian of Suriname's Cultural Centre (Cultureel Centrum Suriname (CCS)). He subsequently returned to the Netherlands to work on the publication of Johannes King's memoirs.

Trefossa wrote primarily about the beauty of his native country, Suriname, especially as a source of peace to the restless mind.
He influenced many writers in Suriname, including Corly Verlooghen, Eugène Rellum, Johanna Schouten-Elsenhout and Michaël Slory, but the depth and subtlety of his verse remain almost unique.

On November 21, 2005, a monument was dedicated in his honor on the Sophie Redmondstraat in Paramaribo. His ashes and the ashes of his wife, Hulda Walser, were also placed at the monument.

External links

Muurgedicht in Leiden
The poem by Trefossa, referenced in the above link, is translated into English below:

Gronmama	Earthmother
Mi a no mi solanga mi brudu fu yu a n'e trubu na ini den dusun titei fu mi	I am not myself until my blood is infused with you in all of my veins
Mi a no mi solang mi lutu n'e saka, n'e sutu mi gronmama	I am not myself until my roots sink down, shoot into you, my earthmother
Mi a no mi solang m'no krari fu kibri, fu tyari yu gersi na ini mi dyodyo.	I am not myself until I manage to keep, to carry your image in my soul
Mi a no mi solanga y' n'e bari f' prisir' ofu pen na ini mi sten.	I am not myself until you cry out with pleasure, or pain in my voice

(Translation from Sranan to English by Quinton Zondervan)