Horizon Review 3 nou beskikbaar

Die derde uitgawe van Horizon Review wat pas op die internet geplaas is, word ten volle aan die digkuns gewy. ‘n Opmerking wat  Jane Holland as redakteur in haar voorwoord maak, het my oog gevang aangesien dit naatloos aansluit by bepaalde gesprekke wat onlangs nog op hierdie webblad gevoer is:  “Some might argue that poetry is unpopular by nature and inclination, even that popularity lowers standards of writing. It is true that the poetry market is saturated with debuts by unknowns and over-hyped mid-career collections by safe, mediocre talents – yet this has long been the case. What we need now is what we have always needed: not more, but better poetry. We need poets who are genuinely excited by the possibilities of language and poetry, poets who read more than they publish, and who are in it for the long haul.” Amen! En nogmaals: Amen!

Dan wil dit ook voorkom asof digters in Brittanje met ‘n probleem te make het wat na alle waarskynlikheid ‘n wêreldwye fenomeen is: “In the past, the accusation was that only dead poets were taught in schools. Now, it appears we have the opposite problem – too many newcomers only seem aware of poetry written since the 1950s,” skryf sy. “The advent of the internet may have granted access to the reading and publishing of poetry at the click of a mouse, and allowed new-wave literary journals like Horizon Review to flourish, but it has brought its own problems, such as over-rapid rises to prominence shored up on the new and lacking the solidity of old-style poetry apprenticeships – which entailed reading, reading, and more reading.”

Nou ja, toe. Hierin lê daar waarskynlik ‘n belangrike les vir ons almal. Besoek gerus Horizon Review se webblad en verlustig jou aan al die heerlike leesstof. As toegif plaas ek vanoggend Deel 3 uit Osip Mandelstam se gedig Armenia wat deur Alistair Noon vertaal en in Horizon Review se afdeling met vertalings opgeneem is.

***

Dan vestig ek graag vanoggend jou aandag op die onderhoud met Thérèse Hulme, samesteller en projekleier van Piemp – een van die mees opwindende projekte wat ek in ‘n lang tyd van verneem het. Nog ‘n nuwe plasing is Desmond Painter se blog oor Bruce Springsteen wat feitlik oomblik ‘n hele klomp kommentare uitgelok het. Gaan lees en geniet …

Ten slotte herinner ek jou graag aan die herdenkingsgeleentheid vir Barend Toerien wat onlangs oorlede is. Dit sal môremiddag om 12:30 op die plaas Koopmanskloof buite Stellenbosch wees. Sprekers wat tydens dié geleentheid gaan optree, is John Kannemeyer, Julian de Wette en Zandra Bezuidenhout. Verversings sal ook bedien word.

Mag jou naweek ‘n fabeljante affêre wees. Nuuswekker hervat weer Maandag.

Mooi bly.

LE

 

 

3

I can’t see a thing, and my unlucky ears have gone deaf;
hoarse ochre and red lead are the only colours I’ve left.

For some reason I dreamt of Armenian mornings, and planned
to go and examine the habits of the blue tit in Yerevan,

and the way that the baker stoops to play blind man’s buff
as he takes the moist hides of flat loaves from the oven.

Yerevan, Yerevan, did a bird sketch out your lines?
Did a lion colour you in with his crayons, like a child?

Yerevan, Yerevan, a roasted nut of a city,
a Babylon I love for its streets, so big-mouthed and twisted.

I thumbed through a muddled-up life, like a mullah his Koran.
I froze my time, and did my warm veins no harm.

Yerevan, Yerevan, there’s nothing, nothing I crave
or need any more. I’ll leave you your icy grapes.

 

© Osip Mandlestam (uit: Armenia, vertaal deur Alistair Noon)