Selected Poems

by Ingrid Jonker

Dit is moeilik om nie deur die kort, onstuimige lewe van Ingrid Jonker geruk en gefassineer te word nie. Die versoeking is dus groot om haar Versamelde gedigte, wat jeugwerk, Ontvlugting (1956), Rook en oker (1963) en die postuum gepubliseerde Kantelson (1966) insluit, deur die lens van haar veelbewoë biografie te bekyk. Dit sou egter dwaas wees om hierdie dikwels sjarmante en speelse verse slegs te ondersoek soos ’n nuuskierige forensiese sielkundige wat die literêre beendere van ’n lewe fynkam vir bewyse van sensasie en waansin. Sinvoller sou wees om in gedagte te hou dat Jonker aanvanklik betower het met haar digkuns en nie met haar politieke instellings of omstrede lewe nie. Lees Ingrid Jonker onbevange en jy word opnuut bekoor deur ’n onmiskenbare helder stem wat met kinderlike verwondering en ontsteltenis sing en huil van onskuld, skoonheid en verskrikking in gedigte wat goël met die aansteeklike en bedrieglike eenvoud van ’n kleuterrympie, maar spook soos duister voorbodes. Lees “Toemaar die donker man” weer met ’n oop gemoed en jy besef hoekom Jonker se woorde ongeag die psigodrama van haar lewe en dood aanhou eggo. Dit kom na jou soos ’n klassieke wiegelied waarin die troos van moederliefde net so waar en teenwoordig is as die oneindige nag daarbuite. Die verse in Versamelde gedigte is die steeds lewende, ademende bewys dat beduidende kunstenaars skep ten spyte van verlies, trauma en geestesongesteldheid en nie gewoon as direkte gevolg daarvan nie – anders sou goeie poësie so volop soos trane gewees het. – Danie Marais

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

Jonker (pronounced yän`ker) grew up with her mother, grandmother and older sister, Anna. Her father, Abraham, never wanted to believe that she was his daughter and that Beatrice (Ingrid’s mother) had had an affair. Unfortunately, Beatrice was fairly unstable emotionally and although she was taken up in a mental institution, she died of cancer when Jonker was 11 years old. At the time, the women had moved from the family farm to Strand and from there to Gordonsbaai, where the girls were attending school. Their father came to fetch them and they had to leave their beloved grandmother behind for a stepmother.

After matriculating at an English high school, Jonker got married to Pieter Venter in 1956. Their daughter, Simone, was born the following year. In 1961 the marriage ended in divorce. By this time Jonker’s debut Ontvlugting had already appeared in print. In 1963 Rook en Oker appeared and she was awarded the Afrikaans Imprint Book Trade prize for it. Jonker used the prize money to travel overseas, but this ended in disaster. She met up with her then-lover, André P. Brink, in Barcelona. By the time they went to Paris, the relationship had become a see-saw of fighting and making up. She ended up at a mental institution there and was sent back to South Africa. Her other lover, Jack Cope, had gotten wind of Brink and didn’t want to pursue his relationship with her any further either.

Jonker couldn’t find work and was even trying to sell the rights of some of her poetry in order to feed herself and Simone. This, in addition to the political turmoil apartheid South Africa was in at the time, added to her emotional distress and she committed suicide by drowning in the ocean at Three Anchor Bay.

Jack Cope was instrumental in having the remainder of her poetry published as Kantelson in 1966. Other than a couple of short stories, Jonker was also the author of a drama entitled Seun na my hart.