Breyten Breytenbach. Vertaling in Engels
Breyten Breytenbach: Vertaling uit Afrikaans in Engels. Vert. deur Ampie Coetzee.
when you let the mother-tongue
when you let the mother-tongue
wither in my mouth
you take away the world
darken my memory
causing me as a stranger
and without an own pair of shoes
to suffer the future
which I cannot mould anymore
but only interpret
and not penetrate
when you take the language
away from me
you rip my heart from my dreams
to replace it
with oral antics
of a tongue that can only
do the blind work of ants
when you file me as mere number of the masses
like a caged-in parrot
peck-pecking at his mirror
you make me an orphan
in the empty house of my fathers
without language to reflect my absence
(From: op weg na kû , p. 118. Human & Rousseau, 2019.)
‘n Uitstekende vertaling!
Beste dr. Coetzee, ek wonder of die vertaling van die heel laaste reël: “sonder taal om my afwesigheid weer te gee” nie eerder van “represent” of dalk van “portray” gebruik moet maak nie, in plaas van u keuse van “reflect” vir die idee om ‘n weergawe te gee.
Groete
Waldemar
Ek dink die vertaling is briljant. En dankie. Vir my werk ‘reflect’ in die laaste lyn, en vind dit aansluiting by, na wat vertaal is: ‘peck-pecking at his mirror’. Die ‘reflect’ en die ‘mirror’ loop mooi saam. Dankie dis mooi om dit in Engels ook te lees.
Sou Afrikaans dan hierbo vir Breyten Breytenbach as genealogiese spieël kon dien indien die implisiete abortering nie die natuurlike gang/volgorde van ons taal kom kortwiek het nie? Mimesis teen die kwik?