Oorblyfsel / Voice Over: (op reis in gesprek met Magmoed Darwiesj) /

by Breyten Breytenbach

’n Bundel met gedigte in sowel Afrikaans as die twee tale staan teenoor mekaar. Breyten noem hierdie siklus verse ’n “collage”, getransformeerde ‘variasies’ van Darwish se werk, met sy eie stem daarin “Magmoed Darwiesj (Mahmoud Darwish, 1941-2008) die Palestynse digter, was ’n vriend van my. ... Onmiddellik na sy sterfte het ek hierdie reeks begin skryf as fragmente van ’n voortgesette gesprek met hom. ... In die daaropvolgende weke sou ek noordwaarts reis – eers na Katalonië en daarna verder tot in Friesland ... Die gedigte gee dit weer. ... Vertaling, om oor te gaan van die een taal in ’n ander, is ook ’n reis. ... Ek beskou hierdie fragmente as lofbetuiging. Miskien ook ’n poging om die sluier te kan wegtrek van die bekende gelaat wat nou stil geword het. ... Die beelde, tot ’n mate selfs die ritme en die vormgewing, is syne. ... Die reis gaan verder en die gesprek duur voort om tussen die woorde na hom te soek.” (Uit die skrywersnota in die bundel.)Mahmoud Darwish word beskou as die vernaamste digter, nie net van die Palestynse stryd nie, maar van die kontemporêre Arabiese letterkunde. Die hooftemas in sy werk is ballingskap en ontheemdheid.  The collection includes poems in Afrikaans with the English version on the righthand page. Breyten calls these poems a ‘collage’, transformed ‘variations’ of Darwish’s work, with his own voice woven into the process. “Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian poet (1941-2008), was a friend. ... Immediately after his passing, I started writing the series as fragments of a continuing dialogue with him. ... Over the following weeks I was to travel north –  first to Catalonia and then on to Friesland ... The poems reflect this trajectory. Translation –  that is, to proceed from one language to the other –  is also a journey. Perhaps too, an attempt to draw the veil from the known face which has now gone silent. ... The images, and to an extent even the rhythms and the shaping, are his. ... The journey continues and the conversation will carry on, in the attempt to look for Mahmoud Darwish among the words.” (From the author’s notes in the book.)Mahmoud Darwish is regarded as the leading poet of not only the Palestinian struggle but of contemporary Arabic literature. The main theme in his work is the anguish of dispossession and exile.

46 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 28, 2011

About the author

Breyten Breytenbach was a South African writer, poet, and painter. He became internationally well-known as a dissident poet and vocal critic of South Africa under apartheid, and as a political prisoner of the National Party-led South African Government. He is also known as a founding member of the Sestigers, a dissident literary movement, and was one of the most important living poets in Afrikaans literature.

Reviews

[Nadja · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could never go wrong with Breyten Breytenbach. This tribute was beyond lovely - speaks right to the soul in so many ways.