‘n Opwindende tendens wat hom tans op hierdie webblad geld is dat bepaalde stukke so sterk is, dat dit ‘n hele aantal verwante stukke tot gevolg het. Graag doen ek met vanoggend se Nuuswekker hieraan mee.
Na aanleiding van Daniel Hugo se inleidende essay rondom die vertaalprobleme ten opsigte van Kaapse tekste, trek ‘n artikel deur ene A.Z. Foreman oor die vertaalprobleme van Arabiese poësietekste my aandag. (Op die webblad Arabic Literature in English.)
Ten eerste sonder hy die ineengeweefdheid van klank en betekenis in Arabiese gedigte uit as een van die vernaamste struikelblokke. “Classical Arabic poetry depends on the fusion of sound and meaning so heavily that it can make or break the poem, and in ways which draw on features of the language’s morphology and phonology which cannot be readily compensated for in translation in any obvious way. […] But in English, wordplay and puns, which are the corresponding techniques, are simply not respectable enough-when used as heavily as in classical Arabic-to be experienced as a great aesthetic vehicle for art.”
Tweedens is daar die radikaal andersoortige siening van wat as “poësie” beskou moet word: “The very notion of what is considered ‘poetic’ is radically different from what newcomers are used to. Panegyrics and satires are marginal forms in much of western literature, whereas they are so central to the classical Arabic tradition.”
Ten derde is Foreman erg beswaard oor die feit dat die vertalers van Arabiese tekste meestal akademici is en by uitsondering digters in eie reg: “Very few translators from Classical Arabic are poets themselves, and most are scholars who can’t suppress their scholarly urges long enough to care about whether the translation will strike a non specialist as worth reading again. And most of the time, the formal features are ignored. It’s bad enough that most non-Arabophones have no way of knowing that modern poems like Mahmoud Darwish’s ‘I am From There‘ were originally written in metrical lines that mostly rhyme. But with Classical Arabic literature, it’s just plain crippling.”
Nou ja, toe. Is hierdie komplikasies nie ook presies dit wat deur vertalers van Kaapse tekste ervaar word nie? Veral die tweede beswaar – oor die verskillende sienings van wat as “poëties” gesien moet word – dink ek is ‘n frustrasie wat ons Kaapse digters nog altyd na die keel gegryp het.
Nietemin, vir jou leesplesier volg die gedig van Mahmoud Darwish waarna Foreman in sy artikel verwys.
***
Ter verdere aanvulling: Na aanleiding van die insiggewende gesprek wat op Marius Crous se mees onlangse blog gevolg het (veral die kommentare oor Harold Bloom), het Danie Marais ‘n essay oor die skrywers en moraliteit uit die argiewe opgediep. (Eweneens verskyn daar later vandag ‘n bydrae deur Jan Deloof oor sy korrespondensie met Peter Blum en die vertaalbaarheid van “Oor monumente gepraat“. Dit is in reaksie op Daniel Hugo se stuk oor die vertaalbaarheid van Kaapse tekste ingestuur.)
Aan die blogkant van sake skryf Amanda Lourens in reaksie op ‘n vroeëre bydrae deur Desmond Painter oor die kwessie van rakleeftyd; Andries Bezuidenhout weer skryf oor die vervaldatum van gemeenskappe terwyl Desmond Painter ‘n volgende bydrae lewer in sy reeks oor Carlos Drummond de Andrade.
Ten slotte fokus ek graag jou aandag op ‘n besondere uitsending op RSG vanaand. Om 21:00 kan jy luister na Iris Bester se hoorbeeld oor die Piemp-digters van Scottsville. En as lusmaker kan jy tussen 09:00 en 10:00 vanoggend (op RSG) luister na ‘n onderhoud wat met Thérèse Hulme, samesteller van Piemp, uitgesaai word. (Hier is die onderhoud wat vir die webblad met haar gevoer was.)
Nogeens ‘n emmervol nuwe inhoud om te verwerk. Geniet dit.
Mooi bly.
LE
I am from There
I come from there and remember,
I was born like everyone is born, I have a mother
and a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends and a prison.
I have a wave that sea-gullls snatched away.
I have a view of my own and an extra blade of grass.
I have a moon past the peak of words.
I have the godsent food of birds and an olive tree beyond the ken of time.
I have traversed the land before swords turned bodies into banquets.
I come from there. I return the sky to its mother when for its mother the
sky cries, and I weep for a returning cloud to know me.
I have learned the words of blood-stained courts in order to break the rules.
I have learned and dismantled all the words to construct a single one: Home
© Mahmoud Darwish (Vertaling: Tania Nasir. Opgeneem in “An Die Kinder Palastinas“, wat in 1998 uitgegee is deur die Goethe Institut, Berlyn.)