Klassieke Japannese versvorm herleef

Met die nuutste uitgawe van Poetry International Web, wat verlede week verskyn het, word daar gefokus op ‘n interessante projek wat gedurende Maart vanjaar in Kumamoto, Japan, plaasgevind het. Vier Japannese digters, te wete Hiromi Itō, Wakako Kaku, Shuntarō Tanikawa en Yasuhiro Yotsumoto het saam met  Jerome Rothberg, ‘n Amerikaanse digter, in Kumamoto bymekaar gekom om ‘n reeks gedigte wat as “renshi” bekend staan, te skryf. Jeffrey Angels, as vertaler, en Earl Miner as renga-kenner, was ook by dié projek betrokke.

Volgens Jeffrey Angels se oorskouende artikel op Poetry International Web is die hele idee van sameldigte in die moderne digkuns op die agtergrond geskuif vanweë dit wat hy as die “romantic cult of individuality” beskryf: “(This is) no doubt in large part due to the ideal that the poet represents a sort of‘’seer’. Despite postmodern notions of the author as simply one part of a complex network of cultural and linguistic forces that form a text, the common conception of a poet as a visionary, somehow distinct from the impulses and thought patterns of mainstream society, persists today.”

Earl Miner, ‘n kenner van klassieke Japannese digkuns, beskryf die renga, wat ‘n middeleeuse voorloper van die ‘renshi’ is, soos volg: “In renga no stanza has a continuing semantic connection, as a discrete poetic unit, with anything other than its predecessor and successor.” Hierteenoor is die ‘renshi’ weer meer ‘n eietydse variasie op dié klassieke voorbeeld deurdat dit veeleer volgens jazz-beginsels funksioneer, aldus Angels: “One might think of renshi perhaps as being somewhat akin to a jazz improvisation. Several players appear on stage at once, gathered for a single purpose, but the players take turns performing their solos on different instruments – usually, in the case of renshi, different types and styles of poetic writing.”

Ter illustrasie kan jy hieronder die eerste agt bewegings van die Kumamoto renshi lees. Die res van die gedig kan hier op Poetry International Web gelees word.

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‘n Besonderse plasing sedert gister is Jaco Barnard-Naudé se essay oor die digkuns as rouproses; by Wisselkaarten is daar ‘n nuwe bydrae deur Vrouwkje Tuinman, terwyl Andries Bezuidenhout en Philip de Vos eweneens nuwe insetsels in hul blogruimtes geplaas het.

Ten slotte – in die gedigtekamers is daar nuwe gedigte deur Daniel Hugo en Joan Hambidge.

Lekker lees.

LE

 

Connecting through the Voice (The Kumamoto Renshi)

[1]

Let us offer up a song, may the gods
Of these fields bear witness
The gods look down, the landowners
Plant the fields and are glad

(Hiromi)

[2]

The children form circles and play in the forests
Where the leaves of visitor’s language flourish

Even in the land of roots
There are seeds waiting to germinate
Or so my great-grandmother used to say

(Shuntarō)

[3]

the future rising
as does my name red mountain
summit high above

the earth below in darkness
hole the fathers called sheol

soon to be with you
on Aso not Death Mountain
in the other poem

beneath which looms the shadow
of a visionary fish

(Jerome)

[4]

Come, please,
My red, burning fluid!
From my crumbling bosom
Through my chest and arms
To the villages beneath the mountains

Things seen with the eyes
Washed away, burned to ashes
Bring a beginning to this world
Once again after so many times

(Wakako)

[5]

Standing before the diorama
Gazing at the mechanized plumes of smoke and flows of lava
My monthly visitor caught me off guard

There is another me who watches silently
As I let out a sigh of relief

(Yasuhiro)

[6]

What has been planted in this sacred field
Belongs to you
Unmistakably belongs to you

(Hiromi)

[7]

Still within my mother’s womb
I wait for language
The language of those who hate me
The language of those who will love me

(Shuntarō)

[8]

so that he starts again
until the mud
through which he walks

covers his body
starts again but robs him
of his breath

(Jerome)

 

 

(Uittreksel. vertaling deur Jeffrey Angels)