Zandra Bezuidenhout – vertaal deur/ translated by Michiel Heyns
Zandra Bezuidenhout was born and raised in the Strand. She studied at the University of Stellenbosch. Later she continued her studies at the Universities of Stellenbosch and Leiden, and in 2005 she was awarded a doctorate on contemporary poetry by Afrikaans- and Dutch-speaking women. She has also published short stories, articles, columns and reviews. Her debut collection, dansmusieke (2000) was awarded the Ingrid Jonker Prize, and a second collection, Aardling, was published by Protea Boekhuis in 2006. She has worked inter alia as translator, teacher and part-time lecturer, and is presently a free-lance language practitioner.
MIDDLE WORLD
In the sanctioned no-man’s-land
liminals live sans plot or plan
in search of newer narratives
contra custom and constitution
in a communitas of in-between.
For years he sojourns neither-nor,
shuns the groove, neutral and anonymous.
the squatter appropriates
alternative spaces on the edge
beyond initiation
patrolling the threshold,
returning home with foreign spoils,
presents credentials as creole:
resident alien traitor-celeb
always something to declare
ranting at the customs desk.
(Uncollected)
(Tr. by Michiel Heyns)
TANGO
Break me softly
make my hair cascade
all the way to the small of my back
Let my leg tendril
round the warm pillar of your body
and swing me
support me
arrest me
till I swirl around you
and you make my head hang down, hang down.
For I glow to the measure of violins
and thrill to the boom of the bass;
sob with the sparse bandoneon
and flare like the paired pianos.
Let the fringes whip my calves
stretch my foot like the paw of a cat
split my shimmering frock
make me tumble and fall like octaves.
Lift me higher than the keening of accordions
catch me low in the gasp
of seconds.
I want to tame you in the tease of the tango,
flirt with the lasso of love;
your arrogant neck I want to clasp
in the grip of my silverest shoes.
(From: Dansmusieke. Suider Kollege Uitgewers, 2000)
(Tr. by Michiel Heyns)
SUMMER HOLIDAY
It was the year of Cliff Richard
seven singles jukebox the Beach Boys
and we California clones all Seventeen
girls twirly soft-serve cones in white swimwear
young men cock-of-the-walk on milk-white beaches
breeze of Brylcream and coconut oil
shoulders thighs smeared to noonday shine
lips of coral-orange by flicker-waters
deeper in the swelling surge we two
rocking on a tractor tube
with droplets of sun and water in our lashes
our hair plastered seaweed-smooth;
bodies tanned bamboo-brown and comely in each other’s eyes
till after the springtide
when the evening wind cools us
amongst the sandy dunes.
(From Aardling. 2006. Protea Boekhuis)
(Tr. by Michiel Heyns)
SIGNIFICATION
Humans cherish the shadow:
inhabit the twilight of a tent,
linger under a canopy of leaves
or in the sombre confines of a hut.
Others shelter in the cupola
of cathedral or cave;
paint the setting sun
and celebrate the coming of dusk
with a foaming calabash
or twirl a glass of gin around;
nurse at night a darker bourbon,
contemplate the curvature of the earth –
roll on the tongue
notions of signification.
But the sun’s eclipse!
Commotion!
The haze of the penumbra
shrinks to a red membrane,
whirls around the smoky fruit
hanging from the palm of heaven:
death’s head, ghost lantern, black balloon.
Snakes flee and owls and birds
hoot-hoot how drear the day;
light years distant wild dogs howl, shiny-eyed
comets whistle among the stars.
Humans gaze into the black pupil of a cyclops,
notate their small catharses;
wonder how many dark suns yet
before we, writing for our lives,
of fright and shadow die.
(From Aardling. 2006. Protea Boekhuis)
(Tr. by Michiel Heyns)
Translator:
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Michiel Heyns grew up in various towns and cities all over South Africa, and studied at the Universities of Stellenbosch and Cambridge. He lectured in English at the University of Stellenbosch until 2003, when he took retirement to write full-time. Apart from a book on the nineteenth-century novel and many critical essays, one of which won the English Academy’s Thomas Pringle Award for Criticism, he has published four novels: The Children’s Day, The Reluctant Passenger, The Typewriter’s Tale and Bodies Politic (a fifth, Lost Ground, is due out in 2011). He translated Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat, which won the 2007 Sunday Times Fiction Award. For this translation he was awarded the English Academy’s Sol Plaatje Prize for Translation 2008 and the South African Institute of Translators’ Award for Literary Translation. His translations of Etienne van Heerden’s 30 Nagte in Amsterdam and Chris Barnard’s Boendoe were published in 2011. He reviews books for the South African Sunday Independent, and was awarded the English Academy’s Thomas Pringle Award for Reviewing in 2006 and again in 2010. |