Elke jaar figureer die Siriese digter, Adonis, prominent in die aanloop tot die aankondiging van die wenner vir die Nobelprys vir Letterkunde as ‘n waarskynlike kandidaat. So was dit ook vanjaar. Daarom dat die onderhoud wat enkele dae gelede in The New York Times verskyn het, my aandag getrek het.
Vanwaar hierdie populariteit? Die onderhoudvoerder stel dit soos volg: “He is an outspoken secularist, equally critical of the East and West, and a poetic revolutionary of sorts who has tried to liberate Arabic verse from its traditional forms and subject matter. Some of his poems are immensely long and immensely difficult and resemble Pound’s Cantos at their most impenetrable. Others reveal a Paul Muldoonish playfulness, a Jorie Graham-like expansiveness and fascination with blank space. His poems are as apt to cite Jim Morrison as the Sufi mystics, and his 2003 volume ‘Prophesy, O Blind One‘ includes some long, leggy lines about traveling that could have been written by Whitman, if only Whitman had spent more time in airports.”
Enkele uitsprake deur die 80-jarige Adonis (sy doopname is Ali Ahmad Said Esber) wat ek graag by wyse van die Nuuswekker aan jou voorhou, is die volgende: “Poetry cannot be made to fit either religion or ideology. It offers that knowledge which is explosive and surprising.” […] “Poetry cannot change society. Poetry can only change the notion of relationships between things. Culture cannot change without a change in institutions.” […] “Poetry that reaches all the people is essentially superficial. Real poetry requires effort because it requires the reader to become, like the poet, a creator. Reading is not reception.”
Fassinerend. Gaan lees gerus die volledige onderhoud op The New York Times se webtuiste. Daar is sommer ‘n hele klomp sake – soos byvoorbeeld vergelykende kommentaar tussen die Midde-Oosterse en Westerse digkunste – wat gewis die moeite werd is om van kennis te neem.
Maar ek sluit af met ‘n ánder treffende uitspraak deur Adonis: “Being a poet means that I have already written but that I have actually written nothing. Poetry is an act without a beginning or an end. It is really a promise of a beginning, a perpetual beginning.” (Uit: ‘Preface‘, 1992)
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Nuwe bydraes om vanoggend te geniet is Bernard Odendaal se resensie van die geleentheidsbundel Versindaba 2010 wat deur die US Woordfees-komitee saamgestel is, en twee nuwe gedigte deur Gilbert Gibson. In die Buiteblik is daar ook ‘n nuwe aflewering deur Carina van der Walt.
Lekker lees en geniet veral die naweek wat op hande is. Ons hervat weer Maandag.
Mooi bly.
LE
Baie dankie vir hierdie vriendelike woorde, Trekboer. En ja, soms raak die petrol in die tenk maar min vir die volgehoue snuffelwerk, maar dan is dit reaksies soos die van jou wat windkrag aan vlerke gee …
As iemand wat nie ‘n digter is nie, wil graag dankie sê vir al die wonderlike insigte wat altyd deur Nuuswekkers geskep word. Dis prikkelend en stimulerend en maak steeds nuwe deure oop en lei terug na ou bekendes waarna ‘n mens dan met vars oë kyk. Almal wat vir Afrikaans en die digkuns omgee, moet van Versindaba kennis neem.
Nogmaals dankie vir ‘n verrykende ervaring.