Versindaba
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D.J. Opperman – translated by/vertaal deur Ilse Gertenbach

Klara Majola

It was Klara Majola who

went searching for Dad at dusk

collecting wood for the fire, was he, a blind man;

but Klara Majola got lost.

Little Klara Majola lies frozen

on the brittle Bokkeveld frost,

her arms and legs brown

and contorted as a vine.

Klara Majola, this cold violence

sifts more slowly from space over my sense.

but never will I, in the Bokkeveld

warm like you, Klara Majola, freeze to death.

(Translation of Klara Majola from “Engel uit die klip” (1950) by D.J. Opperman (1914-1985)

By Ilze Gertenbach)