Charl-Pierre Naudé

Oggend en aand met duiwe

Language: afrikaans

Translations: english (Morning and dusk with doves), german (Morgen und Dämmerung mit Tauben)

Oggend en aand met duiwe

Die lug is vol a priori-duiwe.
Oral waar hul is, wás hulle tevore.
Soos ’n droom wat spartel in die lug
is die dag,
met een hand gepluk
uit die flikkerende stroom, dan verdof dit.

Die huise teen die rantjie staan skraal geëts
in die vroeë lig, soos tekenplanne.
En die lug is vol a priori-duiwe
vandag, of miskien was dit gister.

Die nag, weer,
word bewoon deur post factum-uile.
Hulle fladder op en verf
met hul bromiedkwaste
die teenwoordige tyd bruin –
die heterdaad word roes.

Onthou jy die leë huis met die voetstappe?
“Mense van ’n vervloë tyd ...”
“Miskien net óns s’n.”

Deur die stroke van die blindings
skuif motvlerkoë oor jou lyf
in akkoorde;
onder somersproei bot die polkadot
in die bikini-boorde.

Vet soos nuwe konfytbottels
staan die dimensies op ’n ry.
Die helder vlakke stig kore
in die heuningkoeke
teen die steiltes;

die as stort in matesis.

Die lug word grys van a priori-duiwe.
En alle tyd skyn deur,
soos ’n fiets teen die lig.

Translations:

Language: english

Morning and dusk with doves

The sky abounds with a-priori doves.
Wherever they go,
they’ve already been.
The day is like a dream
wriggling in the air
when plucked with one hand
from the flickering stream.
And, then, its glitter dims.

The houses on the ridge stand bleakly etched
in the early light like scale drawings.
And the sky abounds with a-priori doves
today, or maybe
it was yesterday.

By contrast,
post factum owls inhabit the night.
They take flight
and with their bromide brushes
paint the present tense brown –
the immediate act
discolours to rust.

Do you recall the footfall in the empty house?
“People of former times ...”
“Maybe just ours.”

The light sifts through
the slat blinds and mounts your body
like the eye spots of a moth’s wings,
in musical scales;
under summertime spray
the polkadot burgeons
in the bikini arbours.

Brimming like new preserve jars
are the dimensions, standing in a row.
The pristine planes ignite choirs
in the honeycombs
on the inclines;

and the ash crashes
in numbers.

They sky darkens with a-priori doves.
And all time is translucent
like a bicycle
against the light.

Language: german

Morgen und Dämmerung mit Tauben

Der Himmel wimmelt von apriorischen Tauben.
Wohin immer sie ziehen,
sind sie schon gewesen.
Der Tag ist wie ein Traum,
der sich windet
an der Luft, sobald ihn eine Hand
dem Flimmerstrom entreißt.
Worauf sein Glanz verschwindet.

Im Frühlicht stehen die Häuser kahl, geätzt
wie Baupläne, auf dem Bergkamm oben.
Und der Himmel wimmelt von apriorischen Tauben
heute, oder vielleicht
war es gestern schon.

Dagegen
bewohnen nachträgliche Eulen die Nacht.
Sie ergreifen die Flucht,
und mit ihren Brauenbinsen
pinseln sie die Gegenwart braun -
das unmittelbare Geschehen
nimmt die Farbe von Rost an.

Weißt du noch, die Schritte im leeren Haus?
“Frühere Bewohner ...”
“Vielleicht nur wir selbst.”

Das Licht dringt durch
die Jalousie und spielt über deinen Körper
wie die Augen eines Mottenflügels
auf einer Klaviatur;
unter Sommergischt
sprießen Tupfenmuster
in den Bikinilauben.

Überquellend wie neue Einweckgläser
stehen die Dimensionen in einer Reihe.
Die unberührten Ebenen entfachen Chöre
in den Bienenwaben
der Hänge;

und die Asche zerfällt
zu Zahlen.

Der Himmel dunkelt von apriorischen Tauben.
Und alle Zeit ist durchsichtig
wie ein Fahrrad
im Gegenlicht.

Charl-Pierre Naudé

* 27.08.1958, Kokstad, South Africa
lives in: Johannesburg, South Africa

Charl-Pierre Naudé is a poet, prose writer and essayist, and lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has published three volumes of poetry in Afrikaans, one in English, and a second English volume is underway. His first novel will appear shortly.

Naudé has worked as a journalist, editor, freelance literary critic and book reviewer. He has published in notable magazines in the Netherlands and in South Africa. In Germany some of his latest work has appeared in Schreibheft 84. He has often read at international festivals. In 2014 he lived in Berlin on the Artists-in-Berlin Program of the DAAD.

He has received several prizes for poetry in his home country. His latest volume, Al die lieflike dade (which could be translated as "All the comely actions") has recently been a finalist for two well-known poetry prizes.

He likes to rely on a mixture of imagery and ideas, and mixing up the personal and the social dimensions. Though he comes from a very politically minded society, his poetry refers to this sphere mostly obliquely and in indirect ways. The indirect commentary, which strays from the known route and arrives unexpectedly, covered in barnacles, is what he favours.

He has on occasion said he likes writing about a country that he has dreamed up. This place has strong similarities to a real, geographical place, but it exists entirely separately. And only poetry knows its name.

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