Poem
Ingrid Jonker
Daisies in Namaqualand
Why do we still listento the answers given by the daisies
to the wind to the sun
what has become of the little kokkewiets
Behind the closed forehead
where perhaps a twig still tumbles
from a drowned springtime
Behind my word killed in action
Behind our divided home
Behind the heart locked against itself
Behind wire fences, camps, locations
Behind the silence where foreign languages
fall like bells at a funeral
Behind our land torn apart
sits the green mantis of the veld
and dazed we still hear
small blue Namaqualand daisy
answering something, believing something, knowing something.
© Translation: 2007, Antjie Krog & André Brink
From: Black Butterflies
Publisher: Human & Rousseau, Cape Town, 2007
From: Black Butterflies
Publisher: Human & Rousseau, Cape Town, 2007
MADELIEFIES IN NAMAKWALAND
MADELIEFIES IN NAMAKWALAND
Waarom luister ons nogna de antwoorde van die madeliefies
op die wind op die son
wat het geword van die kokkewietjies
Agter die geslote voorkop
waar miskien nog ’n takkie tuimel
van ’n verdrinkte lente
Agter my gesneuwelde woord
Agter ons verdeelde huis
Agter die hart gesluit teen homself
Agter draadheinings, kampe, lokasies
Agter die stilte waar onbekende tale
val soos klokke by ’n begrafenis
Agter ons verskeurde land
sit die groen hotnotsgot van die veld
en ons hoor nog verdwaasd
klein blou Namakwaland-madeliefie
iets antwoord, iets glo, iets weet.
From: Rook en Oker
Publisher: Afrikaanse Pers, Johannesburg
Publisher: Afrikaanse Pers, Johannesburg
Poems
Poems of Ingrid Jonker
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Daisies in Namaqualand
Why do we still listento the answers given by the daisies
to the wind to the sun
what has become of the little kokkewiets
Behind the closed forehead
where perhaps a twig still tumbles
from a drowned springtime
Behind my word killed in action
Behind our divided home
Behind the heart locked against itself
Behind wire fences, camps, locations
Behind the silence where foreign languages
fall like bells at a funeral
Behind our land torn apart
sits the green mantis of the veld
and dazed we still hear
small blue Namaqualand daisy
answering something, believing something, knowing something.
© 2007, Antjie Krog & André Brink
From: Black Butterflies
Publisher: 2007, Human & Rousseau, Cape Town
From: Black Butterflies
Publisher: 2007, Human & Rousseau, Cape Town
Daisies in Namaqualand
Why do we still listento the answers given by the daisies
to the wind to the sun
what has become of the little kokkewiets
Behind the closed forehead
where perhaps a twig still tumbles
from a drowned springtime
Behind my word killed in action
Behind our divided home
Behind the heart locked against itself
Behind wire fences, camps, locations
Behind the silence where foreign languages
fall like bells at a funeral
Behind our land torn apart
sits the green mantis of the veld
and dazed we still hear
small blue Namaqualand daisy
answering something, believing something, knowing something.
© 2007, Antjie Krog & André Brink
From: Black Butterflies
Publisher: 2007, Human & Rousseau, Cape Town
From: Black Butterflies
Publisher: 2007, Human & Rousseau, Cape Town
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