Winter –NP van Wyk Louw
Nou lê die aarde nagtelang en week
in die donker stil genade van die reën,
en skemer huise en takke daeliks bleek
deur die wit mistigheid en suising heen.
Dis alles ryk en rustig van die swaar
geheime wasdom wat sy paaie vind
deur warm aarde na elke skeut en blaar,
en ver en naby alles duister bind
in vog en vrugbaarheid en groot verlange;
tot ons ’n helder middag skielik sien
die gras blink, en die jong graan teen die hange,
en weet dat alle rus die lewe dien:
hoe kon ek dink dat somer ryker is
as hierdie groei se stil geheimenis?
Sop, kaggels, warm sjokolade en om met ʼn boek op te krul in die bed. Snoesig. Dit is die lekkerste lekker vir my gedurende die winter. Intiem
Gedurende hierdie winter hou die boek: “The poetics of space” deur Gaston Bachelard my geselskap.
Ek lees op bladsy 38:
“Although at heart a city man, Baudelaire sensed the increased intimacy of a house when it is besieged by winter…..”
Volgens die outeur het Baudelaire blykbaar ook die volgende gesȇ:
(Isn’t it true that a pleasant house makes winter more poetic, and doesn’t winter add to the poetry of a house?….)
Op bladsy 39 lees ek verder:
“Baudelaire declares that dreamers like a severe winter. “Every year they ask the sky to send down as much snow, hail and frost as it can contain. What they really need are Canadian or Russian winters. Their own nests will be all the warmer, all the downier, all the better beloved…”
Met my navorsing oor Afrikaanse gedigte wat ek hier wou insluit sien ek dat Andries Bezuidenhout in sy tweede bundel: “Veelvoudige gebruike vir huishoudelike toestelle“, ook die intieme ruimtes van die huis aanraak. (ek maak ʼn nota om dit nog te lees).
Kom ons keer terug na Bachelard :
“All great, simple images reveal a psychic state. The house, even more than the landscape, is a ‘psychic state,” and even when reproduced as it appears from the outside, it bespeaks intimacy. Psychologists generally, have studied the drawings of houses made by children, and even used them for testing. Indeed, the house-test has the advantage of welcoming spontaneity, for many children draw a house spontaneously while dreaming over their paper and pencil. To quote Anne Balif: “Asking a child to draw his house is asking him to reveal the deepest dream shelter he has found for his happiness. If he is happy, he will succeed in drawing a snug, protected house which is well built on deeply-rooted foundations.”
Ek sluit af met ʼn sin uit die gedig ‘MA’ deur Antjie Krog:
“Jou huis my enigste bybel”.