Louis Esterhuizen. Caballero Bonald met vernaamste Spaanse letterkundeprys vereer

 

Die Cervantesprys vir Letterkunde (in Spaans: Premio de Literatura en Lengua Castellana Miguel de Cervantes) is loshande die mees gesogte prys wat aan ‘n Spaanse skrywer toegeken kan word. Dié prys is reeds in 1975 deur die destydse Spaanse Minister vir Kultuursake ingestel en bekroon die totale oeuvre van ‘n bepaalde skrywer: “It is the most prestigious and remunerative award given for Spanish-language literature. The Cervantes Prize is presented to an author whose Castilian-language work as a whole is judged to have most enriched Spanish and Spanish-American culture. ” (Aldus die inskrywing by Encyclopedia Britannica.)

Pas is dit dan bekend gemaak dat die veelbekroonde digter Jose Manuel Caballero Bonald vanjaar met dié prys vereer word. As lid van die sogenaamde Geslag van 1950, digters wat tydens die Franco-diktatorskap aktief in verset was, is die 86-jarige Caballero Bonald bekend vir sy sosio-politiese aanslag. “A person who has no doubts, who is sure of everything, is the closest thing there is to an imbecile,” het hy aan die New York Times se beriggewer gesê. Volgens dieselfde berig het Dario Villanueva, president van die keurkomitee, Caballero Bonald beskryf as “a teller and creator of stories, and a maestro in the use of the language.”

Die prysgeld beloop $167,000. Vorige wenners is onder andere: Jorge Luis Borges (Argentinië), Carlos Fuentes, Octavio Paz (albei van Meksiko) en Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru).

Hieronder volg een van die bekroonde digter se verse.

***

Waiting 

And you tell me
you have to wait due breasts, 
eyes hurt you to have them empty of my body,
you’ve lost up the touch of your hands
felt this absence of air,
you forget the size of my mouth hot.

And you tell me that you know
I drew blood in the words of repeating your name,
hitting my lips with the thirst to have you,
to give my memory, registering blindly
a new way to rescue you in kisses
from no where you yell at me
I’re expecting.

And you tell me that you are so made
this uninhabited leisure of my flesh
that hardly betrays your shadow,
that are barely some
in this darkness that puts distance
between your body and mine.

 

© Jose Manuel Caballero Bonald (Vertaler onbekend)