Goeie nuus is dat Archipelago Press pas bekend gemaak het dat hulle ‘n keur uit Hugo Claus se gedigte in Engels gaan publiseer. Die gedigte in Even Now is deur die bekroonde vertaler David Colmer uit Nederlands vertaal en sal in November beskikbaar wees.
Volgens die aankondiging die volgende: “Claus’s poetry has been marked by an uncommon mix of intelligence and passion, given expression in a medium over which he has such light-fingered control that art becomes invisible […]Perhaps Belgium’s leading figure of postwar Dutch literature, Claus has long been associated with the avant-garde: these poems challenge conventional bourgeois mores, religious bigotry, and authoritarianism with visceral passion.”
En natuurlik wemel dit van lofbetuigings ten opsigte van Claus se gedigte:
“Claus rages against the decay of the physical self while desire remains untamed. From the beginning, his poetry has been marked by an uncommon mix of intelligence and passion, given expression in a medium over which he has such light-fingered control that art becomes invisible.”
— J. M. Coetzee
“Nobody could write so rampantly about the wild veracity of sensual love for women and life than Hugo Claus. To read him is to be shot into verbal ecstasy. Fortunately these translations do justice to so much of this.”
— Antjie Krog
“Astonishing book. Half an hour into reading it I already feel that I have known this poet all my life—and I’d never heard of him before. There is a richness of feeling, exactness of imagery, tender skepticism of the body and its wants—I found myself thinking of Donne, Sterne, Cendrars, Bukowski, Celine all at once—how can he do that? Colmer’s translation is uncanny, feels as if every word is the one the poet intended, always yields a sense of Yes, here it is! Hugo Claus seems suddenly a permanent part of our poetic landscape opened at last.”
— Robert Kelly
Wat eweneens interessant is, is die fotoblad wat beskikbaar gestel is op Archipelago Press se webtuiste. Gaan kyk gerus; daar is ‘n hele aantal minder bekende foto’s van dié befaamde skrywer wat bekyk kan word.
Een van sy gedigte in vertaling volg hieronder.
***
Chicago
Under the crossword of concrete beams,
between the peroxide bitches
and the gastric ulcer advertisements,
besieged by the bells of salvation’s armies
contaminated by soot and sugar
and humiliated by insulted Negroes,
a greyer desire awakes
in every desire.
And whiter gentlemen greet me,
a stranger in their nest,
a friend and fellow pest.
There is reason here to hang,
reason enough, no one gives a dang
between forgetting and release.
A verse from Luke won’t help you here,
nor a leather dragon on your back
nor chewing on the almond herb.
I’ll be replaced here soon
by a mouth full of grit.
© Hugo Claus (Uit: Even Now, 2013: Archipelago Press)
Vertaal deur David Colmer
