Charl-Pierre Naudé

Naudé was born in Kokstad in kwaZulu Natal province and grew up in Durban and East-London, on the South African coast. After studying literature and philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch he settled in Johannesburg as a journalist.

Naudé is no stranger to the Netherlands. In 2000 Poetry International in Rotterdam devoted a translation project to his work. Translations of his poems have appeared in both Dutch and Flemish magazines. Gerrit Komrij in his massive anthology of Afrikaans poetry, selected no fewer than eight poems from Die nomadiese oomblik, which is a lot for a debutant. 

There are certainly influences in Naudé’s work: Vallejo, Ritsos, Neruda, Amichai, Carver, Milosz, and the South African poets Breyten Breytenbach, N.P. Van Wyk Louw and Elisabeth Eybers. About his poetry Naudé says: ‘I don’t see myself and my poetry as synonymous. I don’t know whether I always agree with them. We are friends, yes, as long as they don’t try to convert me. There is a margin of difference between an author and his poem. In that margin lies the magic of poetry. I want to navigate towards that difference, which is inexplicable at best. That is what I pursue. It encompasses the autonomy of poetry. Poetry is an organism we have become one with, but which moves independently at the same time, thinking for itself. Poetry is a “speaking in languages.”’

In 2014 Naudé’s third volume, Al die lieflike dade (All those lovely acts) will be published by Tafelberg.