Georges Rodenbach

"For the Belgians, caught between French and Flemish, north and south, Symbolist theory was simply an intellectualization of their own cultural, linguistic and psychological duality ... Belgium was and still is the “double état”: doubleness nationalized, where, as Jacques Brel put it, “les rues pissent dans les deux langues”.".
Patrick McGuinness over Georges Rodenbach, Brugge, de 'dode stad' en het symbolisme: Bruges, Paris and the spectres of Symbolism.