Die webblad Jacket 2 is sekerlik een van die kuberruim se mees indrukwekkende tuistes vir die digkuns. Nie net is die verskeidenheid van hul aanbod indrukwekkend nie, maar so ook die gehalte van hul plasings. So is een van hul inisiatiewe Poem Talk, ‘n reeks potgooie van gesprekke deur ‘n groep kenners oor ‘n bepaalde gedig. Onlangs is Poem Talk # 107 geplaas en watter fassinerende gesprek is dit nie oor Paul Celan se beroemde gedig “Corona” nie.
Pierre Joris, Anna Strong en Ariel Resnikoff vorm die paneel terwyl Al Filreis as gespreksleier optree.
Wat my van die gesprek opgeval het, is die vraag of “Corona” uitsluitlik as liefdesvers gelees moet word, al dan nie. Vry algemeen word die gedig as liefdesvers beskou en dit was dan ook die mening van Pierre Joris. Sy beskouing baseer hy grootliks op die verhouding wat Celan met Ingeborg Bachman gehad het.
Daar is egter ook ‘n ánder interpretasie moontlik: “Or is it a poem about the dream of finally speaking out the truth, from a casement, to a gathering of the Austrian public, about hate’s annihilating effects?” Anna Strong en Ariel Resnikoff was die ondersteuners van hierdie beskouing.
Jy kan hier na die potgooi luister. Die regisseur daarvan is Zach Carduner.
Hieronder volg die gedig.
*
Corona
Autumn is eating a leaf from my hand: we are friends.
We are picking time out of a nut, we teach it to run:
and time rushes back to its shell.
In the mirror it’s Sunday.
in dreams people sleep,
the mouth tells the truth.
My eye descends to the sex of my loved one,
we gaze at each other,
we whisper our darkness,
we love one another like poppies and memory,
we sleep like wine in a sea-shell,
like the sea in the moon’s bloody rays.
Embracing we stand in the window, they look up at us from the street:
it is time that they knew!
It is time that the stone grew accustomed to blooming,
that unrest formed a heart.
It is time it was time.
It is time.
© Paul Celan
Vertaal deur Jerome Rothenberg, 1959
Niks by enige groot digter kan tog as nét dit of nét dat gelees word nie…dit sou stom wees. Beperkend. Bedompig. Veel waarskynliker speel verskeie konnotasies tegelykertyd mee in die woorklank. Kyk byvoorbeeld na onderstaande twee gedigte (oënskynlik oor twee verskillende onderwerpe, poësie en liefdemaak), wat duidelik intiem verband hou via die beeld van die grot, in die een geval die grot van die woord, in die ander geval die ‘grot’ van die vrou (vir gerief, omdat dit byderhand is, en deur almal gevolg kan word, in Engelse vertalings van Pierre Joris):
LINE THE WORDCAVES
with panther skins,
widen them, hide-to and hide-fro,
sense-hither and sense-thither,
give them courtyards, chambers, drop doors
and wildnesses, parietal,
and listen for their second
and each time second and second
tone.
[Fadensonnen/Threadsuns 1968]
http://www.pierrejoris.com/blog/?p=673
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Spasms, I love you, psalms,
the feeling-walls deep in the you-ravinve
rejoice, seedpainted one,
Eternal, de-eternalized you are
eternalized, Uneternal, you,
hey,
into you, into you
I sing the bone-rod-incisions
Redred, far behind the pubic hair
harped, in the caves,
outside, all around
the unending none-whatsover-canon,
you throw me the nine times
twined, dripping
eyetooth-circlet.
[Fadensonnen/Threadsuns 1968]