Marius Crous - vertaling in Engels
Marius Crous - vertaal deur/translated by Tony & Gisela Ullyatt
Marius Crous
Marius Crous was born in 1965. His first volume of poetry, Brief uit die kolonies, appeared in 2003 and won the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize. His second volume, Aan ‘n beentjie sit en kluif, appeared in 2006. In addition to a doctorate in Afrikaans and Dutch, he has also been awarded MA degrees in Afrikaans and Dutch and in English. He has also completed the Creative Writing Course at the University of Stellenbosch under Professor Marlene van Niekerk. Crous teaches Afrikaans and Dutch at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth.
LETTERS FROM THE COLONIES
III
madam mother of the nations
your troops brought
diseases
there atlas still holds the world
above his head on the roof
of the former bordello
at evening your troops
accosted women in the ditches
luring the girls
to where they lay half-naked like lizards
under a cloud of smoke and drink
your troops told our sons
that sometimes it is good to lie down
with a man as a woman would
your troops bequeathed the dead colour
of their eyes in the locations
look how many yellow-haired children play by the stream
madam we see your smile on our stamps
your face hangs against office walls
apparently you are also a mother of four
come comfort us
when the troops’ beatings
bloom red-purple on our faces
young girls wear a swathe of ribs
the stink of diarrhoea dispels the smell of food
the bootprints that your departing troops
left in the damp sand still linger
weep for us madam
here there are no more tears
(From: Brief uit die kolonies, Protea Boekhuis, 2003)
(Tr. by Tony & Gisela Ullyatt)
UM SCHLIMME KINDER ARTIG ZU MACHEN
After two paintings by Marlene Dumas
1.
I recall the wetness of the blue and red paint
on my hands and across my stomach
remembering the children’s-bible-stare of my mother
his eyes looking at the blue sea on my stomach
my hand the red boat heading for harbour
and I remember his hands too turbulent for my sea
his boat too huge for my harbour
his mouth that could swear like a seaman
I recall how I smeared my body with the paint
grubbed around between my legs to yank his boat out
rolled on my mother’s bed the sheets stained with paint
and still as a painter I brush with my fingers
over the cut marks on my belly and legs
still smeared and painted over only
as mother teaches me
2.
against his neck he feels
her haunches soft her panties
pink as the milkshake on the table
in suit and tie he is on all fours in his socks
barefoot she kicks his flanks
she squeezes her legs open and closed
to spur him on
she moans exuberantly
horsey your neck hairs scratch me
horsey it tickles my kitty
(From: versindaba www, 2010)
(Tr. by Tony & Gisela Ullyatt)
Sometimes
sometimes I walk down the old street again
your street our street
I wait for the gate to slide open
or look up at the lace curtains
filthy sieves catching wicked dreams
I might hear the balcony door slam
the same tyke still runs from front gate
to side gate to front gate across the road
on the dot from the kitchens comes
the smell of
burnt meat
the two foreigners still beside their designer window box
hunkering over your jalopy’s oil blotches
a grease-stained black model
sometimes I let the keys drop
deliberately I struggle with the lock
wish you would come round the corner once more
waving to me with inky fingers
and everything will be again as it should
(From: versindaba www, 2010)
(Tr. by Tony & Gisela Ullyatt)
Van Staden’s River
at night rising from the open throat
hoarse the voices
of those that eddy
in the acid of his stomach
for ever indigestible dollops
that will never be heaved up
into the river’s spewing mouth
(From: versindaba www, 2010)
(Tr. by Tony & Gisela Ullyatt)
Translators:
|
Tony Ullyatt was born in Nottingham, and educated in India, Sudan, and Kenya before coming to do an undergraduate degree in English and French in Durban, South Africa. After finishing a Master’s degree in English at the University of Auckland, he wrote a PhD on American poetry at Unisa. He has further Master’s degrees in Psychology, Myth Studies, and Applied Language Studies. He also has a PhD in Myth Studies. He has won prizes for his radio drama and poetry as well as the FNB/Vita Award for Translation. He is currently a Research Fellow at the University of the North-West’s Potchefstroom campus. Gisela Ullyatt was born in Bloemfontein, where she studied at the University of the Free State. After completing an Honours degree and a Master’s degree in German, she finished a Master’s degree in English (Applied Language Studies) as well as a Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Her poetry has appeared in journals both locally and internationally, and she is a prize-winning short-story writer. Through the University of the North-West, she is currently working on a PhD which undertakes a Buddhist reading of Mary Oliver’s poetry. |
