Dat die voormalige Joegoslawië wonderlike digters na vore gebring het, is ‘n feit soos ‘n perd met ses bene. Dink maar hier aan name soos Charles Simic, Vasko Popa, Ivan V. lalic en Novica Tadic.
In 1992 het einste Charles Simic ‘n omvattende bloemlesing met Serbiese poësie saamgestel; ‘n bloemlesing wat hy nou weer opgedateer het en by Graywolf Press heruitgegee het. Die titel daarvan is, soos die vorige uitgawe s’n, steeds The Horse Has Six Legs: An Anthology of Serbian Poetry en weereens is hy verantwoordelik vir al die vertalings.
Volgens Graywolf Press se persverklaring gee hierdie bloemlesing “a real human voice to an area with a history of great conflict, which is certainly relevant to our current world climate. Simic covers a broad spectrum of Serbian poetry from the oral tradition of folk song to the great postwar poets and the new generation of poets writing now. What is remarkable about this anthology is the vivid surrealism, imagination, and humor of a people dealing with such difficult life circumstances-it really speaks to the power of writing to help people cope with the unimaginable atrocities of this world.”
Op die webtuiste Bomblog is daar ‘n onderhoud wat deur Susie DeFord met Charles Simic gevoer is na aanleiding van dié heruitgawe. As lusmaker enkele vrae en antwoorde uit dié onderhoud vir jou:
Susie DeFord: The Horse Has Six Legs was first published in 1992. What was the reason for the updated version and how do you see the poetry being relevant to the world today?
Charles Simic: There were so many younger, terrific poets in Serbia who emerged in the years since I first put together the anthology. I realized that they had to be included. As for being relevant, every poem that’s worth reading in some way reflects the world in which the poet lives. That’s one of the reasons we read poetry.
SD: Poets and poetry try to explain the unexplainable-emotions, war, relationships, aging, etc. Considering what you witnessed as a child in the former Yugoslavia, do you think that’s part of what attracted you to poetry?
CS: I’m sure that it had something to do with it, but my imagination, or as my mother would say, my ability to tell lies, played a far greater role. It’s the imagination and love of language that make a poet much more than the circumstances of their lives.
SD: How has the process of translating influenced your own poetry?
CS: Translation is the closest reading one can do of a poem. I’ve been translating poetry for fifty years, so I’ve learned in great detail how very different poems are constructed.
Die volledige onderhoud kan hier gelees word.
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Op die webblad kan jy vanoggend Charl-Pierre Naudé se digstringbydrae oor sy gedig “Twee diewe” lees; ook ‘n nuwe blog-inskrywing deur Desmond Painter oor Amos Oz en sy passie vir musiek en poësie.
Verder is dit maar aan die stillerige kant; gebruik dus dié geleentheid om agterstallige leeswerk in te haal. En, soos altyd – geniet die naweek wat op hande is!
Nuuswekker hervat weer Maandag.
Mooi bly.
LE