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Lee Mokobe

SandBoy

  • 1 On coming out | Translations: de
  • 2 Growing Pains | Translations: de
  • 3 SandBoy | Translations: de
  • 4 Sometimes In April
Language: english
Translations: german (SandJunge)
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SandBoy

When we were younger
All the girls on the street
Were told to eat sand to help fill out their breasts
I filled my mouth with the Lord’s dust
And prayed for small pecs
And one day I woke with melons
Weighing heavy on my chest
And wondered
How could I have swallowed all that
Earth in my sleep
And isn’t that what it meant
To be woman
To be filled with dirt
And still blossom
To feed on earth and call it this body
And how this body is earth too
And that I did not want to be either
That I want to rip my chest open
And pour all this
Every grain of it
Back where it belongs
I did not ask for all of it
Just some
And ain’t that funny
How this body is at the mercy of this soil
That we are nothing but it
And can’t I be something that grows less
Like soot
Something that stains
So they can’t call me girl or woman
But call me earth
And body
And just
Me.
Sand filled.
Mistaken.
Unsatisfied.
Boy.
With sand for chest.

© Lee Mokobe
Audio production: Haus für Poesie, 2019
Categories: memory, gender & sexuality, infancy & youth, body, Dream

Translations:

Language: german

SandJunge

Als wir noch klein waren
Bequatschte man die Mädchen auf
Der Straße, Sand zu essen, damit sich ihre Brüste füllen
Ich füllte mir den Staub des Herrn in den Mund
Und sandte Gebete für ein flaches Dekolleté
Und erwachte eines Tages mit Melonen
Schwer auf meiner Brust
Und fragte mich
Wie hatte ich schlafend all die Erde
Schlucken können
Und ist das nicht genau das, was es bedeutet
Frau zu sein
Mit Dreck gefüllt zu werden
Und trotzdem zu blühen
Sich von der Erde zu ernähren und Leib dazu zu sagen
Und wie dieser Leib auch Erde ist
Und ich wollte nichts von beiden sein
Wollte mir die Brust aufreißen
Und alles auskippen
Noch das letzte Sandkorn dorthin
Zurück, woher es kam
Ich hab das alles nicht erbeten
Nur ein wenig davon
Das ist echt nicht zum Lachen
Wie dieser Leib der Gnade dieser Erde ausgeliefert ist
Dass wir nichts sind als das
Und kann ich nicht etwas sein, das langsamer gedeiht
Wie Ruß
Etwas, das Flecken macht
So dass sie mich nicht zu den Mädchen oder Frauen zählen können
Sondern Erde nennen
Und Leib
Und einfach
Mich
Mit Sand gefüllt
Verkannt.
Bekümmert
Junge.
Mit Sand als Brust.

Aus dem Englischen von Axel Schock und Ron Winkler
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Lee Mokobe

photo © Kaya Mtengwane
* 10.08.1995, Cape Town, South Africa
lives in: Cape Town, South Africa

In his impressive performances slam poet Lee Mokobe (b. 1995 in Cape Town, South Africa) deals with social and political subjects and with his experiences as a black, transqueer member of the LGBT* community.

He is the founder and artistic director of the Vocal Revolutionaries, an organisation dedicated to nurturing new literary talent in Africa, and has won both an Adobe Creative Catalyst Prize and a fellowship from the Awesome Foundation.

 photo © Kaya Mtengwane
Mokobe’s work has already been awarded many international prizes and is taught in various universities around the world. He is a three-time TED and TEDx speaker and in 2015 was the youngest ever recipient of a TED fellowship. The video clip of his performance reflecting on his transgender identity has been clicked on more than 1.5 million times.

Mokobe is currently working on his first collection of verse and teaching photography, poetry and film to young people from all over the world.

Awards
  • 2014 Gold Medal-South African Youth Slam Champion

  • 2014 Brave New Voices International Slam Poetry 2nd Place

  • 2015 TED Fellow

  • 2015 Brave New Voices International Slam Poetry 1st Place

Links
  • Lee Mokobe on TED.com

    Website

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