Dat ik je mis (that I miss you) is a Dutch song written by the Dutch singer/songwriter Maaike Ouboter. Maaike auditioned on the Dutch tv program De Beste Singer/Songwriter van Nederland (The Best Dutch Singer/Songwriter) with her original song. The song was inspired by the loss of her parents when she was only in secondary school.

Dat ik je mis contains just an acoustic guitar, and is about missing of a loved one in a broader sense. Lyrics such as ‘I can’t help but miss you’, ‘I have to go on on my own’, ‘you stay close to me but in my mind you’re at rest’ and ‘I keep searching for you in everything around me’ point to the topic of missing someone.

When looking at death mentalities as mentioned by Philippe Ariès , the song Dat ik je mis by Maaike Ouboter expresses the attitude of ‘thy death’ the best. Thy death was an attitude towards death which was most common during the 1700s and onwards. In this period of time, death was seen as a break between loved ones, and there was an intolerance of this separation. People wanted to remember and commemorate loved ones who had passed away. Love, emotion and remembrance was made very clear in the emerging grave culture during that period of time, cemeteries were the perfect place for people to remember their loved ones.

The song Dat ik je mis by Maaike Ouboter  makes clear that this attitude towards death is also visible in the 21st century. It expresses the missing of someone who passed away and the emotion that comes with it. 

References:

Ariès, Philippe. (1974). Western Attitudes Toward Death: From the Middle Ages to the Present