In ‘n vroeëre Nuuswekker het ek berig dat Don Paterson (45) die kortlys gehaal het vir vanjaar se Forward-prys vir die beste digbundel. Nou kan ons berig dat hy inderdaad dié gesogte prys met ‘n prysgeld van £10,000 vir ‘n derde keer ingealm het met sy pasverskene bundel Rain (2009: Faber & Faber, R220). Saam met Paterson op die kortlys was digters Peter Porter, Sharon Olds en Glyn Maxwell. “It was a close call,” het David Harsent, beoordelaar en vorige wenner van dié betrokke prys gesê en bygevoeg: ” These are some extremely gifted poets and it was an atrociously strong shortlist. Had it been a poor season I suppose one could have said there were one or two stand-out books, but that simply was not the case here. Every book on the shortlist had to be thought about very carefully, and there was by no means a country mile victor.”
Nogtans het Paterson se bekroning algemene byval gevind. “It is a book of great seriousness by a particularly gifted writer. It has enormous emotional depth and he is a very skilful writer in real command of his craft. Some of the work in it is tremendously moving and one or two of the poems really unsettled me – the book will stay with me,” het Harsent verklaar.
Gaan lees die volledige berig op The Guardian se webblad, asook die resensie deur John McCullough oor Don Paterson se pryswenner by Horizon Review. Veral McCullough se slotopmerking is iets wat ‘n mens ter harte kan neem: “Paterson is for many one of the most important poets writing in English, a ruthlessly intelligent writer who refuses to eschew musicality or necessary difficulty for the sake of fashion or populism. This eclectic, inventive and highly moving collection will only further his standing.”
Heelonder volg die pragtige titelgedig uit die bundel wat pas deur Johann de Lange aangestuur is. Dankie daarvoor, Johann.
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Dan kriewel die webblad omtrent vanoggend met nuwe materiaal. Van Andries Bezuidenhout is daar twéé nuwe inskrywings: een oor expat-treffers en nog een oor die verpakking van klank, terwyl Johann Lodewyk Marais weer die toespraak wat hy tydens die amptelike bekendstelling van Lucie Möller se bundel Watermerke gelewer het, geplaas het. En dan is Desmond Painter se stuk oor Fidel Castro, Kuba en die resensie wat hy enkele jare gelede oor die boek My life – Fidel Castro geskryf het, beslis die lees werd.
Ten slotte – dit is vir ons besonder aangenaam om Melt Myburgh as nuwe blogger te verwelkom. Melt was die afgelope paar jaar inhoudsbestuurder by LitNet en is tans werksaam as projekbestuurder by Woordfees. Sy debuutdigbundel word vroeg volgende jaar verwag. Welkom, Melt! Mag dié nuwe assosiasie vir jou ‘n gelukkige een wees …
Lekker lees aan alles wat nuut is en mag hierdie dag gemaklik lê in jou hand.
Mooi bly.
LE
Rain
Don Patterson
I love all films that start with rain:
rain, braiding a windowpane
or darkening a hung-out dress
or streaming down her upturned face;
one long thundering downpour
right through the empty script and score
before the act, before the blame,
before the lens pulls through the frame
to where the woman sits alone
beside a silent telephone
or the dress lies ruined on the grass
or the girl walks off the overpass,
and all things flow out from that source
along their fatal watercourse.
However bad or overlong
such a film can do no wrong,
so when his native twang shows through
or when the boom dips into view
or when her speech starts to betray
its adaptation from the play,
I think to when we opened cold
on a rain-dark gutter, running gold
with the neon of a drugstore sign,
and I’d read into its blazing line:
forget the ink, the milk, the blood—
all was washed clean with the flood
we rose up from the falling waters
the fallen rain’s own sons and daughters
and none of this, none of this matters.
(c) Don Paterson (Uit: Rain, 2009: Faber & Faber)