Poem

Antjie Krog

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WHERE I BECOME YOU (9.)

9.

autumn the singularity from your sleep before dawn
all signals roam through your tongue
and we hold each other’s blood in trust
my lived one
my faithsong enraptured

your non-negotiable breath
makes of us separate ones
in the course of time
o my embodied love
lingering in gravity, all-powerful: us

© Translation: 2009, Karen Press

. Background Sources: Govert Schilling, Evoluerend Heelal – de biografie van de kosmos, Fontaine Uitgewers Davidsfonds/Leuven, 2003 Paul Celan, Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan (translated by John Felstiner), W.W. Norton New York & London, 2001

WHERE I BECOME YOU (9.)

9.

herfs die enkelheid uit jou slaap voor dagbreek
alle sinjale swerf deur jou tong
en ons hou mekaars bloed in bewaring
my geleefde
my geloofsang verrukte

jou onbedingbare asem
maak van ons apartes
mettertyd
o my gelyfde lief
swaartekrag-talmend, almalmagtig: ons

© 2009, Antjie Krog
From: Waar ik jou word
Publisher: Poetry International / Uitgeverij Podium, Rotterdam / Amsterdam

. Agtergrond bronne: Govert Schilling, Evoluerend Heelal – de biografie van de kosmos, Fontaine Uitgewers Davidsfonds/Leuven, 2003 Paul Celan, Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan (translated by John Felstiner), W.W. Norton New York & London (2001)

Antjie Krog

Antjie Krog

(South Africa, 1952)

Antjie Krog’s work focuses on her struggle with attributes she acquired at birth: she is white and a woman. Though we are all expected to accept our own identity, one of Krog’s most important works of non-fiction is a book called Begging to be Black, and her famous menopausal sonnets lament the physical change destroying her “last juiciness”. This is characteristic of her poetry: her struggle a...

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WHERE I BECOME YOU (3.)

WHERE I BECOME YOU (7.)

COUNTRY OF GRIEF AND GRACE

WHERE I BECOME YOU (4.)

\'N MISSIE VIR DIE NUWE VERBOND

WHERE I BECOME YOU (8.)

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WHERE I BECOME YOU (9.)

9.

autumn the singularity from your sleep before dawn
all signals roam through your tongue
and we hold each other’s blood in trust
my lived one
my faithsong enraptured

your non-negotiable breath
makes of us separate ones
in the course of time
o my embodied love
lingering in gravity, all-powerful: us

© 2009, Karen Press
From: Waar ik jou word

. Background Sources: Govert Schilling, Evoluerend Heelal – de biografie van de kosmos, Fontaine Uitgewers Davidsfonds/Leuven, 2003 Paul Celan, Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan (translated by John Felstiner), W.W. Norton New York & London, 2001

WHERE I BECOME YOU (9.)

9.

autumn the singularity from your sleep before dawn
all signals roam through your tongue
and we hold each other’s blood in trust
my lived one
my faithsong enraptured

your non-negotiable breath
makes of us separate ones
in the course of time
o my embodied love
lingering in gravity, all-powerful: us

© 2009, Karen Press

. Background Sources: Govert Schilling, Evoluerend Heelal – de biografie van de kosmos, Fontaine Uitgewers Davidsfonds/Leuven, 2003 Paul Celan, Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan (translated by John Felstiner), W.W. Norton New York & London, 2001

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