Die Dansende Digtersfees / Dancing in Other Words, is ‘n internasionale fees van digters en digkuns wat op Vrydag 10 en Saterdag 11 Mei 2013 op Spier, buite Stellenbosch, gaan plaasvind. As ‘n gesamentlike projek tussen Spier en die Pirogue Kollektief, is die Dansende Digtersfees die eerste beliggaming van ‘n vennootskap met die bedoeling om verder vorentoe soortgelyke ruimtes van skepping en verbeelding te bevorder en te fasiliteer, hetsy literêr, maatskaplik, of polities van aard.
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Ko Un (1933) is nie net een van die mees produktiewe digters wêreldwyd nie, maar beslis ook van die mees gerespekteerdes. Tot op datum het hy reeds meer as ‘n honderd titels gepubliseer, waaronder digbundels, fiksie, essays, vertalings en drama. Sy digkuns wissel van kort, liriese verse tot lang eposse soos die sewedelige Paektu-san.
Op die webtuiste Other Poetry Voices kan sy fassinerende lewensverhaal gelees word; ‘n verhaal wat ten slotte soos volg saamgevat word: “(Ko Un) is a man of intense emotions, his poetry is often characterized by the rhetorical features of public speech: rhetorical questions, exclamations, exhortatory imperatives. His poetic language is vivid and colloquial, marked by popular speech rhythms rather than by literary conventions. Controversy as to the evaluation of his work continues; he has many fervent admirers, while others criticize the spontaneity, the lack of polish and refinement that at times characterize his work.”
Ko Un is vir al die regte redes ‘n gereelde deelnemer aan poësiefeeste wêreldwyd en het al by bykans al die vernaamste feeste opgetree. Verdermeer is sy gedigte al in 15 tale vertaal.
Vir addsionele inligting verwys ons belangstellendes graag na die digter se eie webblad, asook dié van sy vertaler.
Bundels van Ko Un wat tydens die fees beskikbaar sal wees, is:
First Person Sorrowful (2013: Bloodaxe Books)
This Side of Time (2012: White Pine Press)
Songs for Tomorrow: A Collection of Poems 1960 – 2002 (2009: Green Integer)
What? – 108 Zen Poems (2008: Parallax Press)
The Three Way Tavern: Selected Poems (2006: University of California Press)
Ten Thousand Lives (2005: Green Integer)
Little Pilgrim (2005: Parallax Press)
Hieronder volg een van sy korter verse as lusmaker.
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Spring rain
O waves, the spring rain falls
and dies on your sleeping silence.
The darkness in your waters soars above you waves–
and by the spring rain on your sleeping waters
by spring rain even far away
far-off rocks are changed to spring.
Above these waters where we two lie sleeping
looms a rocky mass, all silence.
But still the spring rain falls and dies.
© Ko Un (Uit: Songs for Tomorrow, vertaal deur Brother Anthony, aka An Sonjae)