“In the dark times, will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing.
About the dark times.”
(Bertolt Brecht)
Onder die vaandel van hierdie aanhaling is daar nog ‘n besonderse bloemlesing wat tydens die Dansende Digtersfees beskikbaar gaan wees; Carolyn Forché se omvattende Against Forgetting – Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness (WW Norton & Co.); ‘n bloemlesing wat soos volg deur die uitgewer aangekondig word: “Bearing witness to extremity—whether of war, torture, exile, or repression—the volume encompasses more than 140 poets from five continents, over the span of this century from the Armenian genocide to Tiananmen Square.” Aanvullend hiertoe is daar ook die bespreking by Poets.org: “Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness collects poetry by over 140 poets who, according to the anthology’s editor Carolyn Forché, “endured conditions of historical and social extremity during the twentieth century—through exile, state censorship, political persecution, house arrest, torture, imprisonment, military occupation, warfare, and assassination.” By gathering work that she defines as, “poetic witness to the dark times in which they [the authors] lived, Forché intended Against Forgetting to reveal the ways in which tragic events leave marks upon the imagination.”
Afgesien van die uiters indrukwekkende galery internasionaal-gerekende digters wat in dié versameling byeengebring is, daar eweneens die lys aanbevelings. By wyse van lusmaker kopieër ek dit hieronder vir jou.
Die boekbesonderhede is soos volg:
ISBN: 9780393309768, Sagteband, 812 ble., WW Norton & Co, R341.50
***
“Poetry cannot block a bullet or still a sjambok, but it can bear witness to brutality—thereby cultivating a flower in a graveyard. Carolyn Fourché’s Against Forgetting is itself a blow against tyranny, against prejudice, against injustice. It bears witness to the evil we would prefer to forget, but never can—and never should.” — Nelson Mandela
“In a class by itself, edited and and introduced with precise passion and Olympian breadth, Against Forgetting encapsulates both the horrors of our century and the power of musical language to make a place to live, breathe, hope, love.” — Calvin Bedient
“From every continent comes the news that our age is an age of murder and repression on a scale unimagined before. And yet I can’t peruse this book without marveling at what beauty these writers have made of the calamity called the Twentieth Century. I would not have thought a poetry anthology could be so stirring.” — Arthur Miller
Ek dink nou aan ‘n aanhaling uit Ernst Renan se ‘Wat is ‘n nasie?’ (1882): ‘To forget and – I will venture to say – to get one’s history wrong, are essential factors in the making of a nation; and thus the advance of historical studies is often a danger to nationality….’