"Spijt" ("Regret") is a poem by Flemish poet Willem Elsschot. First published in 1934, the poem was reprinted in his 1957 collected works without the final verse paragraph, which contains a possibly controversial term for "woman". The poem, which expresses the guilt and desperate love felt too late by a son for the now-dead mother, is one of Elsschot's best-known works. The last line of the sometimes-omitted paragraph, "Dient het wijf dat moeder heet" ("Serve the woman known as mother"), has become an oft-cited phrase in Dutch to suggest the difficulty of serving and even portraying motherhood.
References
- Kets-Vree, A. (1982). Over Willem Elsschot: beschouwingen en interviews. The Hague: BZZTôH. p. 236. ISBN 9789062911219.
- Sanders, Ewoud (9 October 2003). "Meer wijven". NRC Handelsblad. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
- Roosen, C.J.A. (2004). "'Dient het wijf dat moeder heet': pathologische liefde tussen moeders en dochters". Adolescenten en de liefde: psychotherapie met adolescenten. Van Gorcum. p. 172. ISBN 9789023240075. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
- "'Dient het wijf dat moeder heet'". De Standaard. 14 August 2007. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
- Hanenberg, Patrick van den (24 January 1995). "Een bittere voorstelling over het wijf dat moeder heet". de Volkskrant. Retrieved 8 May 2012.