Untitled - Spier Poetry

content
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Dear reader
Curators note
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Homero Aridjis
Andries Bezuidenhout
Breyten Breytenbach
Ingrid de Kok
Johann de Lange
Diamil
Finuala Dowling
Duo Duo
Gus Ferguson
Joan Hambidge
Jabir
Ilya Kaminsky
Rustum Kozain
Abdellatif Laâbi
Johann Lodewyk Marais
Petra Müller
Mxolisi Nyezwa
Nimrod
Henning Pieterse
Hans van de Waarsenburg
Neo Muyanga
Andrea Dondolo
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Thanks
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curator’s note
dear reader
Dear reader
Welcome
Beste leser
Poësiefees van 2014 voorgelees gaan word onder die wakende oog
Even more than last year we intend during this second season
Breyten Breytenbach
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Welkom
Un mot de bienvenu
Weer eens het ons die geleentheid en die voorreg om ‘n aantal
Dié van u wat laas jaar kom luister het sal saamstem dat dit ‘n unieke
Ons verwerdig ons nie om voor te gee die deelnemers is
Que la danse commence!
Breyten Breytenbach
Breyten Breytenbach
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poets
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homero aridjis
mexico
homero aridjis
Autorretrato a los cincuenta y cuatro años
En el comedor de mi casa
y a la orilla de un arroyo
El Prometeo formado con retazos humanos
man came and turned it to stone
when the sun tumbled down its rays
man came and turned it to stone
when the snake slithered across time
man came and turned it to stone
ensnared death with his eyes
sank into the dust and grass
In the dining room of my house
stalked roads and villages
and since then has a human head
Man ghost of himself
was destroyed by his own gods
a few stones
Tr. Betty Ferber
Frankenstein came out of the town movie
Tr. George McWhirter
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homero aridjis
andries
bezuidenhout
A Love Poem
Koelkas
volgens die tweede wet van termodinamika
is verkoeling die meganika
is all I have to give
when a bare bed all
as die afwesigheid van hitte nie
to say what I see
when my eyes and motion and my voice
are struck dumb
when I have cast out the dread
of dying every death
when an eternity of nothings and unremembering
is all I have to offer
the second law of thermodynamics
relates refrigeration to the mechanics
eternities in which I cannot see or touch you
stir you to jealousy or murder you
also known as cryogenics
when I can no more answer for myself
than I have day or body
then will I be yours
then I will love you always
than the mere absence of heat
Tr. Author
Tr. George McWhirter
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breyten breytenbach
south africa
breyten breytenbach
waar voëls mak gemaak word maar niemand het ooit
daar gejag nie na die binneland waar wolke dans
sluit ‘n bergreeks die ruimte
met blou verte
om die heuwel kronkel
af te kyk na die see na my kamer gekom om te sing
hulle het sag die rooi tandvleise laat sien
soos hulle lag
en ek het vir ewig gelewe
I dwell on a hill
where birds are tamed –
it is a land of dense vegetation
but nobody ever
hunted there ¬–
to the interior where clouds dance
die doeke is wit want die oë is leeg
die afsydigheid van die nag
buite sig
die dae vergaan soos seisoene by die ruite
ek wou jou brandmerk met die vlammende uur
van alleen wees
geen vuur sing so mooi
soos die silwer as van jou bewegings nie
en jou treurige liggaam
ek wou daardie treurigheid uit jou haal
vol duiwe en die vuur van bome
en waar silwer kraaie ook onsigbaar is in die nag
en dan wou ek hê dat jy kon lag
en jou bitter lyf
hoe dikwels was ons hier
waar net silwer skaduwees nog roer
with blue distances
along the track snaking
around the foot of the hill
deur jou alleen het ek besef hoe haweloos ek is
to look down at the sea
came into my room to sing
and swing nimbly on the rhythm
Tr. Author
softly they showed their red gums
when they laughed
and I was living for ever
Tr. Author
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breyten breytenbach
ingrid de kok
south africa
in a burning sea
is a girl of thirteen
and the moon a smile somewhere outside
out of sight
wet unweaned sacks
she carries them under her arms
and on her back
though some must walk beside her
bearing their own bones and mash
of being alone
as the silver ashes of your movements
and your melancholy body
I wanted to draw that sadness from you
so that you might be revealed
in sickness and distress
Moon and bone-cold stars
and silver crows also out of sight in the night
and the moon a mouth that one can ignite
and then I wished that you could laugh
and your body bitter
a sword at my ear
how often were we here
where only silver shadows stir
only through you I had to deny myself
through you alone I knew I had no harbour
in a burning sea
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the delivery vans
unclean and dead
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ingrid de kok
ingrid de kok
Tomorrow I may defend my land
into a victim or killer; some in-between thing
On Wednesday I may let the winded stars
I may on Thursday read of a hurt child
some not-so bad but not exactly great thing
arriving at dawn on the wind
with its old sweet news?
The sheets on the washing line
Friends hold hands at school;
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johann de lange
south africa
diamil
vendredi slam
senegal
Par la ville sainte de Touba
In Kandahar dra die bome granate
Mais les jeunes croisent les bras
Toujours autour du barada
Teen skemer as die kandelare brand
in woonbuurthuise & moskees
Le cadet de leurs soucis
Les sans voix et les sans toits
In Kandahar the trees wear grenades
Quand la santé tousse
Tous les feux sont au rouge
At dusk as thin candles are lit
Le déclic est certes imminent
Pour faire bouillir la marmite
Tr. Author
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diamil
vendredi slam
south africa
Summarising life
Le fanatisme religieux est devenu contagieux
Le sexe est banalisé et devient marketingment canalisé
La drogue est avalisée
the full moon ran across the bay towards me
Et les abandonnent tels des résidus
Et les armes sont rendues
Les valeurs et les vertus vendues
Le chagrin nous consume
Nos âmes seront nos sésames
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duo duo
china
duo duo
Promise
I love this enamored house inviting us to lie down and make
its roof
A night mouse is also like a child
Rustling across the silvery ground
I love the intelligence in my dreams being an ambitious
groom
For your body to illuminate this room once again
I love all night long the waves attracting the front deck of
I love controlling myself in front of the desk
I love thrusting my hands into the sea
But still more than what has been left out when a woman
Waiting for someone to launch us again
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duo duo
gus ferguson
south africa
Living Together
They lingered an entire night
Looking for signs around a small white house
That was when the mistake occurred
He counts and counts inside his head
And regardless of the cruel shining
Of the daylight outdoors at a later time
As if deceased
Not bothering to recall
Even the most tender of things
His tankas thirty-one
With fourteen lines and seven rhymes
Entering straight into
The doorway of that building with no signs
They had always been looking for
How literally nice!
He likes to write a villanelle
Through the violet frosty mist
And set ablaze
Their sentiments
—
And measures ineluctable
Go
That ticks each beat and rhyme
Give them a beat
Darken hereafter
As they walked toward the middle of the street at dawn
He was wearing a blue working uniform
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joan hambidge
south africa
jabir
vendredi slam
senegal
In ‘n troebel droom
die vertrekkendes wat soms in drome
en nooit terug groet nie of in ‘n glaskas van ‘n museum
Hul lewes was ‘n blote storie en die Outeur
Vannag lees ek daardie geleende boek
In a turbid dream
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jabir
vendredi slam
senegal
ilya kaminsky
ukraine
usa
who runs through rooms without
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ilya kaminsky
ilya kaminsky
I kissed a woman
whose freckles
arouse the neighbors
like medals for bravery
meant come to bed
Her hair waterfalling in the middle
naked in her galoshes she waltzed
Of the conversation meant
come to bed
of music
of my hairy arms
Lying under the cool
The heart needs a little foolishness!
We were making love all evening –
I raise my infant daughter to the sky –
on my forehead and my shoulders!
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rustum kozain
abdellatif laâbi
morocco
Most of all I dream of the sun on a rock
and on the other side
with nothing more than wanting to stare
and wonder at it just being bear
a clear trickle runs in cold through fern and fynbos
They say she removed her scarf each morning
and struck the earth seven times
cursing the sky and the Tyrant
I was in the cave
where the convict reads in the shadows
I dream of lying in the sun there and watching
somewhere in a North American jungle
with god knows what else around us
But I love the coffee in them all the more
the sound only of water over stones
like a chuckle dim and soothing
from a favourite uncle now gone
whom you try too late to love back
I have not seen my mother for twenty years
but I am the last man
like some river where I dream
on watch with an eagle
which with a screech wakes itself
that this is only dream
no encounter by which to turn this verse
to lie on the bank and watch
son foulard de tête
a lone tiger breaks the algae on the water
en maudissant le ciel et le Tyran
Many animals I dream of seeing
I would want them to know I mean no harm
but seek only these moments from their lives
mais je suis le dernier homme
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abdellatif Laâbi
abdellatif laâbi
I hear the wolves
They are cozy in their country houses
They greedily watch television
and loudly sing the tunes of commercials
I see the wolves
and with a show of hands elect
the Judas on duty
dull color
the blood of a land where mass graves
I hear the wolves
They turn off their lights at midnight
In two hours on the train
A half hour for childhood
slowly melts into my own
and her head on my shoulder
is light as a dove
When we arrive
about an hour to live
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petra müller
south africa
south africa
Timboektoe
and still your shirt is the whitest
because it shall be dusk once more
Die stad anderkant die Nigerrivier
van Taghaza en Taoudenite
Drie honderd drie en dertig heiliges
se verwaaide grafte bewaar die stad
waar nuwe slawe in die medina
He is cold-blooded – not that long
maande lank deur die duine getrek het
met die gang van die sterre en die wind
Timbuktu
voortvaar
The city on the other side of the Niger
e
The city where new slaves in the medina
want dit sal weer skemer word
Now a man wearing leather sandals
travelled through the dunes for months
Hy is koud van bloed – glad nie so lank
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south africa
Quiet place
at the end of time
i remain aware of the long-suffering of things
Songs from the earth
in a small red house
next to a shebeen
and a volcanic school
with sad teachers
my woman laughs
all day long
the vague colour of the moon
From malikhanye
maybe it is not me they are looking for
those who wanted much more
than this obedient earth can give
on two wings
while a heavy stone
thunders in my forehead
and from every tree
and every branch
dismal songs from the earth
cries of tormented deaths
in the sky
like the furious smell
of drugs in the street
or at times
like the roasting
and made all mystic more natural
the texture of your hair
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nimrod
chad/france
Tristesse
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i want to be a university lecturer
or doctor of something
Qui louche la nuit a la couleur de ses yeux
Les feuilles en tombent
write notes
ask everyone to think
be busy
do my assignments
be there in front
of the lecture-hall
wear shoes
carry myself about
silently
i want to be the guy
everyone goes to
sit in my chair
about god and the devil
and how satan gets away with everything
look at things
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Nos murs sont des foins
nos murs ont besoin
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Achevons-le désobligeamment
Puis avec amour — un zeste de durée
Au fond des yeux au fond des mots
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be objective
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nimrod
nimrod
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My sister my lovely you give form to my soul
This tenderness when dusk falls like a girl
The air is heavy with her restraint
It makes leaves fall
Autumn comes too early
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My suster my lief jy gee vorm aan my siel
Hierdie teerheid wanneer die skemer daal soos ‘n meisie
Wat skuins kyk die nag het die kleur van haar oë
Die lug is swaar met haar teruggetrokkenheid
Dit laat blare val
Die herfs kom voortydig
Die voël sing in E herstel
The bird sings in E natural
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From time to time dried grass exceeds
Our walls are straw
our walls need
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Droë gras oorskry van tyd tot tyd
Die gevoelige omhulsel van tyd
Ons mure is strooi ons mure kort
Voer en kooigoed en geduld
Die besem van ‘n bloedjong meisiekind
‘n Dringende behoefte geteken aan ruimte —
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Kom ons berei die ruimte met geduld
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En dan met liefde — met ‘n tikkie bestendigheid
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They are beautiful they are clean they abandoned themselves
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Hulle is mooi hulle is skoon hulle het hulleself oorgegee
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henning pieterse
henning pieterse
Even memories of snow and earth
Twee dae lank het ek gesit en kyk
In die grys tyd net na middernag
Wing
My chambers of the universe
The warm darkness and I
For two whole days I sat and looked
In the gray time just after midnight
From behind icy clouds around a lost moon
Your head is half-hidden under my shoulder;
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henning pieterse
holland
Polskie Tango
Tightly in a Polskie Tango that their bodies
Tr. Peter Boreas
Polskie Tango
Hij kust haar vingers en houdt haar als in
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An horizon there for the taking
Had I forgotten you in stereo sound?
Looking over your shoulder I see
It was in an outdoor cafe in Bahia
- you don`t dance the tango in Austria -
Tr. Peter Boreas
Later dreamt of frayed ends hanging like
Tr. Peter Boreas
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neo muyanga
south africa
musical director
thanks
Curator
Co-Curator
Breyten Breytenbach
Georges Lory
Translations
Johann de Lange & Georges Lory
Praise poet
Neo Muyanga
Andrea Dondolo
Neo Muyanga
Lungiswa Plaaitjies
Galina Juritz
Texito Langa
Hannelie Visser
Festival stage manager
andrea nomasebe dondolo
south africa
praise poet and story teller
Eastern Acoustics
Catering
Design
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Room 13 Design
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pirogue collective
spier
always informed by the guideline to imagine Africa in
The Pirogue Collective stages caravans to other
as the annual Imagine Africa and the Pirogue Poets
series) and by means of residencies and festivals in a
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Over many years and through a diverse series
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