Een van die digters wat vanjaar by die Dansende Digtersfees by Spier Wynlandgoed buite Stellenbosch gaan optree, is Homero Aridjis. Dié fees vind vanjaar op 9 en 10 Mei plaas. Besoek die amptelike webblad vir meer inligting.
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Homero Aridjis (1940) is ‘n Meksikaanse digter. Vantevore was hy vir ‘n ses jaar periode president van PEN Internasionaal en tans president emeritus. Ook was hy ‘n ambassadeur vir Meksiko in Switserland, Nederland en meer onlangs UNESCO. Hy is veral ook bekend as omgewingsaktivis wat in sy leeftyd al by etlike bewaringsprojekte betrokke was: “Many of his forty-three books of poetry and prose have been translated into fifteen languages, and his writing has been recognized with important literary prizes in Mexico, Italy, France, the United States, and Serbia. As founder (in 1985) and president of the Group of 100, an environmentalist association of writers, artists, and scientists, he has received awards from the United Nations (Global 500 Award), the Orion Society, Mikhail Gorbachev and Global Green USA and the Natural Resources Defense Council.”
Boeke van Aridjis wat tydens die Dansende Digtersfees beskikbaar sal wees, is die volgende:
“Eyes to See Otherwise – Selected Poems” (2001: New Directions, New York.)
“Solar Poems” (2010: City Light Publishers, San Fransisco.)
“A Time of Angels” 2012: City Light Publishers, San Fransisco.)
Op die webblad vir Words Without Borders het Andrew Seguin die volgende oor “A Time of Angels” te sê gehad: “The specificities of what angels can do, and who they are, are both mundane and fascinating, and the thoroughness with which Aridjis explores the subject is one of the strengths of the book. Angels have gold eyes; they have eyes on their wings; they do not give alms to beggars; they pass through walls; one sleeps in “a horizontal hole in the old city / with one door that opens onto the air / and ads for booze and condoms. Which is to say that the angels, in Aridjis’s mind, might resemble us more than we would like. So why is it a time for angels? That is the fundamental question that the book poses and answers, albeit obliquely […] The final poem in the book, ‘I don’t go out in the world any more,’ contains the lines ‘I don’t go out in the world any more, / they disfigured the street, / cut down the cypresses on me, / killed the birds, / blew away the tigers.’ It’s an angel speaking, seemingly from beyond hope. It begs the question of whether we, and our planet, are beyond saving. Aridjis, through his political and environmental work, has fought to save the planet and its species, but the poems in A Time for Angels allow him to explore darker territory where that may not be possible. More than a time for angels, Aridjis’s poems suggest, it is a time for self-reckoning.”
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