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    • Translates into 
      • abkhazian
        afar
        afrikaans
        albanian
        arabic
        araucanian
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        azerbaijani
        bashkir
        basque
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Hugues C. Pernath

Tien gedichten van de eenzaamheid IX - Na deze nacht, mijn ongeloof, het kraken

  • 1 Tien gedichten van de eenzaamheid I - In het liefdeloze landschap van mijn eenzaamheid | Translations: enfrdesl
  • 2 Tien gedichten van de eenzaamheid II - Als een verwante, met niemand heb ik de hoop gemeen | Translations: enfrde
  • 3 Tien gedichten van de eenzaamheid III - In mijn vreemd verdriet vermoed ik het verstijven | Translations: enfrde
  • 4 Tien gedichten van de eenzaamheid IV - Ik zocht de uitersten, en van het verdriet | Translations: enfrsl
  • 5 Tien gedichten van de eenzaamheid V - Ik verafschuw de schaamte, het sidderen van weleer | Translations: enfr
  • 6 Tien gedichten van de eenzaamheid VI - Misschien mijn keuze, mijn eeuwigheid | Translations: enfr
  • 7 Tien gedichten van de eenzaamheid VII - Ik behoor niet meer maar beheers het beven | Translations: enfrde
  • 8 Tien gedichten van de eenzaamheid VIII - Ik verbleef in de koude gangen van komen en gaan | Translations: enfrsl
  • 9 Tien gedichten van de eenzaamheid IX - Na deze nacht, mijn ongeloof, het kraken | Translations: enfrdesl
  • 10 Tien gedichten van de eenzaamheid X - Ik treur niet, geen tederheid trekt mij aan | Translations: enfrescshusvslde
Language: dutch
Translations: english (After this night, my lack of faith, the creaking), french (Les dix poèmes de la solitude IX - Après cette nuit, mon incroyance, la désintégration), german (Nach dieser Nacht, mein Unglaube, das Knacken), slovenian (Po tej noči, moja nevera, razbijanje)
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Tien gedichten van de eenzaamheid IX - Na deze nacht, mijn ongeloof, het kraken

Na deze nacht, mijn ongeloof, het kraken
Van dit voortdurend stilzwijgen, dit verbreken
Dit vereren. Deze allerlaatste poging bedwongen
Door geen woord, geen testament tegen de tijd.
In deze kamer verdroeg ik de waarschijnlijkheid,
Diegenen die alles schonden en vierend en voelend
Hun willekeur behielden tegen regel en recht.
Maar ik ben ik, en geen ander zal ik zijn
Tussen de woekerende wortels, de stralen en de waan.

Ik hoorde het kloppen van vluchtige vleugels
Over de begroeide beelden waartussen wij ontbraken,
En terwijl de regen ratelde en mijn taal je liefhad
Maakte ik me de afkeer, mijn afstand afhandig
En steeds bedwelmd, gaven geen wolken mij de aarde
En jouw leugens mij niet eens de moed van de lafaard.
Maar soms doet het glanzen van de appels pijn.

In het donker onttrokken de treden mij trapsgewijs
Aan een sterven dat mijn leven werd. Bevuild
En bekleefd met het schuim van de treurige tinten
Waarin ik ontwaakte, vulde mijn adem vreemde holten
En verzandde na de tochten die ik ondernam, na het vinden.
Ik, die als enige overlevende de vertwijfeling voelde
Die lag opgebaard, dwars door mijn voorbije dagen,
Ik ga weerloos aan dit vijfde seizoen te buiten
Want doodgaan wordt voor mij een doofheid die duurt.

From: Gedichten
Tielt/Amsterdam: Atlas, 2004
Audio production: VRT - Flemish Radio- and Television Network (www.vrt.be)

Translations:

Language: english

After this night, my lack of faith, the creaking

After this night, my lack of faith, the creaking
Of this constant silence, this breaking
This revering. This very last attempt suppressed
By no word, no testament against time.
In this room I endured probability,
Those who defiled everything and celebrating and feeling
Maintained their caprice against rule right.
But I am I, and shall be no other
Among the rampant roots, the rays and the delusion.

I heard the beating of fleeting wings
Above the overgrown statues where we were missing,
And while the rain rattled and my language loved you
I ditched my aversion, my distance
And still groggy, no clouds gave me the earth
And your lies not even a coward’s courage.
But sometimes the shining of the apples hurts.

In the dark the stairs removed me a tread at a time
From a dying that became my life. Soiled
And matted with the foam of the sad hues
In which I woke, my breath filled strange cavities
And foundered after the journeys I undertook, after finding.
I, who as the only survivor, felt the desperation
That lay in state, cutting across my bygone days,
I, defenceless, relish this fifth season
For dying will be for me a deafness that lasts.

Translation: Paul Vincent
Language: french

Les dix poèmes de la solitude IX - Après cette nuit, mon incroyance, la désintégration

Après cette nuit, mon incroyance, la désintégration
De ce silence incessant, de cette rupture,
De ce culte. Nulle parole, aucun testament
Contre le temps n’a jugulé l’ultime tentative.
Dans cette chambre j’ai supporté la vraisemblance,
Ceux qui dégradaient tout et préservaient triomphalement
Et consciemment leur bon plaisir, défiant foi et loi.
Mais je suis moi et je resterai mon-même
Entre les racines qui prolifèrent, les rayons et les chimères.

Au-dessus des statues couvertes de verdure parmi lesquelles
Nous ne figurions pas, j’entendais le battement d’ailes fugitives,
Tandis que la pluie jacassait comme une pie et que ma langue t’aimait
Je me suis affranchi de la répulsion, de mon renoncement
Et toujours troublé, les nuages me refusaient la terre
Et je ne puisais même pas dans tes mensonges le courage du couard.
Mais j’étais parfois meurtri par l’éclat des pommes.

Dans les ténèbres, les degrés me dérobaient graduellement
A un trépas qui devint ma vie. Souillé
Et poissé par l’écume des couleurs funèbres
Qui assombrissaient mon réveil, mon souffle a comblé d’étranges creux
Et il s’ensabla dans les marches que j’entrepris après la trouvaille.
Moi qui, comme unique survivant, éprouvais le désespoir
Dressé en catafalque au travers de mes jours écoulés,
J’outrepasse, sans défense, cette cinquième saison
Car pour moi mourir devient une surdité que dure.

Translation: Jeanne Buytaert
From: Comme un personnage perdu, Hilversum/Bruxelles/Paris, Kofschip-Kring, 1986.
Language: german

Nach dieser Nacht, mein Unglaube, das Knacken

Nach dieser Nacht, mein Unglaube, das Knacken
Dieses andauernden Schweigens, dieses Brechen
Dieses Verehren. Der allerletzte Versuch, durch kein Wort,
Kein Testament wider die Zeit unterdrückt.
In diesem Zimmer ertrug ich die Wahrscheinlichkeit,
Jene, die alles schändeten und feiernd und fühlend
Auf ihrer Willkür beharrten gegen Regeln und Recht.
Doch ich bin ich, und ich werde kein anderer sein
Zwischen wuchernden Wurzeln, den Strahlen und dem Wahn.

Ich hörte das Pochen von flüchtigen Flügeln
Über zugewachsenen Statuen, zwischen denen wir fehlten,
Und während der Regen prasselte und meine Sprache dich liebte
Kam mir die Abneigung, der Abstand abhanden
Und immer betäubt, schenkten keine Wolken mir die Erde
Und deine Lügen mir nicht einmal den Mut des Feiglings.
Doch manchmal tut das Glänzen der Äpfel weh.

Im Dunkel entzogen mich die Stufen schrittweise
Einem Sterben, das mein Leben wurde. Beschmutzt
Und verklebt vom Schaum trauriger Farben,
In denen ich erwachte, füllte mein Atem fremde Höhlen
Und versandete nach den Fahrten, die ich unternahm,
    nach dem Finden.
Ich, der ich als einziger Überlebender die Verzweiflung spürte
Und aufgebahrt lag, quer durch meine verflossenen Tage,
Ich überlasse mich wehrlos dieser fünften Jahreszeit,
Denn Sterben wird für mich zur Taubheit, die nicht aufhört.

Übersetzung: Maria Csollány
Aus: Noordzuid/Nordsüd, Poëziecentrum, Gent, 1993.
Language: slovenian

Po tej noči, moja nevera, razbijanje

Po tej noči, moja nevera, razbijanje
Te trajajoče tišine, tega prekinjanja
Tega čaščenja. Zadnji poskus zatrt
Brez besede, brez testamenta proti času.
V tej sobi sem prenašal verjetnost,
Tiste, ki so vse skrunili in slaveče ter čuteče
Ohranjali svojo samovoljnost pred pravilom in pravico.
A jaz sem jaz, in nihče drug ne bom
Med košatimi koreninami, žarki in zmoto.

Slišal sem udarce hitrih kril
Nad poraščenimi podobami, kjer naju ni bilo.
In medtem ko je drdral dež in te je moj jezik ljubil,
Sem odvzel odpor, svojo oddaljenost
Vedno omamljeno, nobeni oblaki mi niso dali zemlje
In tvoje laži niti poguma strahopetca.
A včasih boli sijaj jabolk.

V temi so se mi stopinje postopno odmikale od
Umiranja ki je postalo moje življenje. Zamazana
In zalepljena s peno otožnih odtenkov
V katerih sem se zbudil, je moja sapa polnila tuje luknje
In jih zamulila po sprehodih na katere sem šel, po najdenju.
Jaz, ki sem kot edini preživeli občutil obup,
Ki je ležal na parah prek mojih minulih dni,
Grem neoborožen čez vsako mero tega petega letnega časa,
Saj bo smrt zame gluhota ki traja.

Translation: Katjuša Ručigaj
From: Sodobnost, september-oktober 2004.
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Hugues C. Pernath

* 15.08.1931, Borgerhout, Antwerp, Belgium
† 04.06.1975, Borgerhout , Antwerp, Belgium

Hugues C. Pernath is the attractive literary pseudonym of Hugo Wouters, who was born in the suburbs of Antwerp.

At the age of sixteen he volunteered for the Belgian army in order to escape the friction between his parents, who were in the process of divorcing. At the beginning of the 1950s his first poems were published in the avant-garde magazine Het Cahier. From 1955 on, with Paul Snoek and Gust Gils, he became the driving force behind the magazine gard-sivik and a pivotal figure in the second experimental generation in Flanders. In 1957, when Paul Snoek for called up for military service in the Belgian army, he and the professional soldier Hugues Pernath wrote each other poetic letters. A selection appeared as Soldatenbrieven in 1961. Their work had thematic affinities, but their approach to poetry was totally different. Pernath favoured autonomous literature, Snoek a romantic-expressive style.

1963 saw the appearance of Pernath’s collection Instrumentarium voor een winter Tool Kit for a Winter), in which through idiosyncratic selection, combination and elimination of words he adapts the syntax of Dutch to his unbridled need to explain his own existence. This he experiences as torn apart and he assembles the irreconcilable oppositions in a poetry that reflects this state of mind.

In his second collection, Mijn gegeven woord (My Given Word, 1966), Pernath gives a poetic and pessimistic report on his loves and friendships, disappointments and antagonisms, hope and despair. Feelings of fear and inferiority alternate with guilt and irritation at the loss of a lover and the disloyalty of friends.

In the early 1960s Pernath also began making translations and adaptations of dramatic texts (Tartuffe, King Lear, The Hostage, etc.) in collaboration with directors. In 1967 he went on a three-month directing course at the Film and Theatre School in Łodz in Poland, where met such directors as Wajda and Skolimowski. At the end of that year he appeared stark naked in Masscheroen by his friend Hugo Claus, which resulted in the latter’s conviction on a charge of indecency.

Between 1966 and 1970 Pernath wrote Vijftig index-gedichten (Fifty Index Poems), many of which were protests designed to be read at poetry events in Amsterdam, Brussels and Antwerp. These occasional poems show the poet’s intense involvement in social developments.

In 1970 Pernath married Myra, from an Australian Jewish background. He dedicated his Exodus cycle to her: in it memories of his visit to Auschwitz merge with painful childhood memories, a tormenting sense of loneliness, and a heightened sense of mortality. The cycles De acht hoofdzonden (The Eight Cardinal Sins) and De tien gedichten van de eenzaamheid (The Ten Poems of Solitude) present the poet’s disillusion, alienation and isolation in strongly physical imagery rooted in philosophy. They also contain sublime love poetry.

The collection Mijn tegenstem (My Counter-Voice, 1973) contains work written in the period 1966-1973.

In 1973 Pernath joined the exclusive society of Pink Poets, a group of 13 poets, artists and intellectuals united in their opposition to the dumbing down of culture, in their fostering of a dandified, romantic-decadent attitude to life and in the creation of sophisticated, word-based and mannerist poetry. Pernath had just been elected as the society’s first president, when on 4 June 1975 he died suddenly at the age of only forty-three. In the years following his death Pernath acquired the image of a writer of genuine poetry, in which what is at stake is no more or less than the authenticity of his own experience of existence. This made a great impression on the generation of poets that succeeded him: Leonard Nolens, Roger de Neef, Dirk van Bastelaere, Peter Verhelst and others. In 2005 a reading edition of the complete poetic works of Hugues C. Pernath, based on scholarly research, was published.

Joris Gerits

Publications
  • Het uur Marat

    Antwerpen: Ontwikkeling, 1958

  • De adem ik

    Antwerpen: Ontwikkeling, 1960

  • Het masker man

    Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 1960

  • Soldatenbrieven

    Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 1961

  • Hedendaags

    Wetteren: Galerij Drieghe, 1963

  • Instrumentarium voor een winter

    Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 1963

  • Mijn gegeven woord

    Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 1966

  • De acht hoofdzonden

    Antwerpen: Privé-uitgave, 1970

  • Exodus

    Antwerpen: Privé-uitgave, 1970

  • Mijn tegenstem

    Antwerpen: Pink Editions & Productions, 1973

  • Nagelaten gedichten

    Antwerpen: Pink Editions & Productions, 1976

  • Verzameld werk

    Antwerpen: Pink Editions & Productions, 1980

  • Gedichten

    Tielt/Amsterdam: Lannoo/Atlas, 2005

Awards
  • 1961 Ark Preis

  • 1968 Knokke-Heist Preis für Poesie

  • 1974 Jan Campert Preis

  • 1977 Belgischer Staatspreis für Poesie

Links
  • Hugues C. Pernath @ DBNL

  • Hugues C. Pernath @ Poetry International Web

    Poetry International Web presents original poems from the author alongside English translations and further information about the poet.

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