Menno ter Braak, ‘n modernistiese skrywer, verwys na “die duister digter” en die literator, A.P. Grové het ‘n reeks opstelle geskryf met hierdie titel in 1949. Is die “oop” toeganklike gedig “beter” of meer aanvaarbaar as die ingewikkelde gedig?
Albei mag. N.P. van Wyk Louw het sowel eenvoudige as verwikkelde gedigte geskryf. Maar selfs die beroemde “Klipwerk”-reeks wat werk met liedjies en folklore is by ontleding ingewikkelder as wat lesers mag besef.
Robin Robertson skryf oop én komplekse verse en sy Sailing the Forest gee blyke van ‘n meester aan die woord. In die volgende gedig word daar van die leser speurwerk verwag en daar word verduidelikings van woorde gegee:
Under Beinn Ruadhainn
For Andrew O’Hagan
Three moons in the sky
the night they found him
drowned in Sawtan’s Bog;
just his cap, sitting there
and his wee fat hands poking out.
It was no loss
to the village, I told them
next morning,
and the villagers agreed.
Horn-daft, he was,
havering and glaikit
and scaring the children.
I mind that time
he picked up a mouse
and ate it, quick,
in two mouthfuls;
set the tail aside
on the ground
like a cocktail stick.
I used her well, after that,
his Jennie,
still in her widow’s weeds,
gilping into her
whenever I could,
in the barn or the boathouse
or off in the fields.
She slipped two or three out at least,
and sank each one in a lobster creel.
Her head was away
by the end, as mad as her man
and no good to me.
She sleeps now
under Beinn Ruadhainn, her face
covered in ivy,
scab, and sticky-willow.
The dreams came then.
Last night, the burning loch,
so full of bairns
they bobbed to the surface
with their hair on fire;
black snow; fingers
coming through the floorboards;
rain like razor blades;
the foosty-faced man,
there at every corner,
hands furred with grey-mould.
And her, as always,
star-naked, hatching
in the herring-nets.
The last I remember
was my body being driven
with sticks through the town
to Sawtan’s Brae, and hanged.
I broke from sleep and sat up sweating,
dream-fleyed in the dark.
I groped around for the matches
and the matches were put in my hand.
Woordverklarings:
Beinn Ruadhainn: Summit of the red place (Gaelic) in Engels Ruthven
Horn-daft: quite mad
Havering: babbling, speaking nonsense
Glaikit: vacant, idiotic
gilping: spurting, spilling
Foosty: mouldy, gone bad
*
‘n Vers van primordialiteit en waansin. Met treffende beelde:
set the tail aside
on the ground
like a cocktail stick.
Ek het ‘n Ierse vriend in Kaapstad wat vir my Gaelic as taal verduidelik en die lang verbintenis tussen Skotland en Ierland:
Relating to the Goidelic group of Celtic languages, particularly the Celtic language of Scotland, and the culture associated with speakers of these languages and their descendants.
“traditional Gaelic culture”
noun: Gaelic; noun: Scottish Gaelic
a Celtic language spoken mainly in the highlands and islands of western Scotland. It was brought from Ireland in the 5th and 6th centuries AD.
“these Scots speak Gaelic in addition to English”
another term for Irish (the language).
noun: Irish Gaelic; plural noun: Irish Gaelics
Origin
mid 17th century (as noun): partly from Scottish Gaelic Gàidhlig, early Irish Goídelc, from the base of Welsh Gwyddeleg, in turn from the base of Welsh Gwyddel ‘Irishman’ (see Gael); partly from Gael + -ic.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=gaelic Besoek 11 Januarie 2025
Ek op my beurt vertel vir hom dat die Afrikaanse woord gril nie ‘n Engelse ekwivalent het nie. Tydens my Kersvakansie in Hermanus maak ‘n Jodin uit Johannesburg my hierop attent.
In Sailing the Forest is daar vele toeganklike gedigte soos hierdie juweel:
Middle Watch, Hammersmith
He switches off the fridge
just to sit and watch
the hardness of the iced-up
icebox start to drip,
its white block
loosening like a tooth.
‘n Sestet dus.
En ‘n ikoniese representasie van die ontvriesing, want in die vierde reël verander die ysboks na iets wat drup …
Soos ‘n tand wat loskom.
https://www.litterm.co.za/2015/03/17/sextet/ Besoek 11 Januarie 2025
Die sestet kan ‘n aparte gedig wees of deel uitmaak van die Petrarcaanse sonnet (oktaaf/sekstet).
En as my verbeelding nou op loop gaan, sit ons hier met die gedig sonder die oktaaf.
Met iemand wat alleen is nadat die geliefde hom verlaat het? Hierom die yskas ontvries en dalk besig is om te trek uit die gemeenskaplike woning?
Joan Hambidge
11 Januarie 2025
Bronne:
Grové, A.P. 1984. (vierde druk). Woord en wonder. Pretoria: Nasou.
Oor duister digters:
https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/braa002inge01_01/braa002inge01_01_0010.php Besoek 11 Januarie 2025
Robertson, Robin. 2014. Sailing the Forest. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Swart ys
(Met kopknik na Robin Robertson)
Iewers nou is daar ys geglasuur,
soos my Ierse vriend verduidelik,
hy wat my nou leer van Gaelic
soos wat foosty en glaikit bedui.
Horn-daft en havering ook.
Vir die woord gril, so leer ek
hom, bestaan helaas geen
Engelse ekwivalent of eksponent.
Op hierdie taalekspedisie
elkers en elders, ‘n ekspansief:
altyd op soek na vastheid,
iets stasionêr, dalk onomstootlik.
Geen havering of gebabbel.
Iewers is daar ys geglasuur.
Vir hom wat my leer van Gaelic
soos tinsel, ‘n whizza on the rocks.
© Joan Hambidge