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TJ Dema

THE YARN OF THE HIDDEN SPINDLE

  • 1 LETHE | Translations: dees
  • 2 DREAMS | Translations: dees
  • 3 JUST BECAUSE
  • 4 CIRCUMCISION
  • 5 THE YARN OF THE HIDDEN SPINDLE | Translations: de
  • 6 BREAD FOR THE BIRDS | Translations: de
  • 7 FIRST BORN LULLABY | Translations: de
Language: english
Translations: german (DIE GESCHICHTE DER VERBORGENEN SPINDEL)
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THE YARN OF THE HIDDEN SPINDLE

This is what they say
Once in the long ago
Inside the city of Silica
After the last of the silkworms had died
We turned to food for clothes
Not for barter but to take
And make dresses of milk
Fuel of corn, residue of the edible oils
We had depleted our selves
And could no longer sustain emotion without an act
All day caramel coloured, cane hands pulled corn out of fields
At night without a tree in sight
The heavens would fall, until morning
We lay blanketed in life’s per kilo fumes
For the first time more humans died around the world
In a day, than just
Africans moulting in poverty with its mundane and petulant hand
Then one day, we pulling
Out of the fields came a man with a crown
Of husks and palms you could clean see through except for the children
All yellow brown and golden who were born with needles in their eyes
Their mothers’ thighs webbed together not with thread but lies
From fathers who flaxen
Wilting under the day clay
Had long since shed their secondary duty
To become camouflage men again
You see, they told their blind sons and daughters
We could not carry more than one title, more than one name
And so they chose they who had a choice
To be only men
Once we saw we were dead
Mainly the ones in skirts with our young
Littered among the living as though we too
Were alive
Fear sent forth phantom fingers
Winged as mercury, foraging messengers turned mercenary
Afraid the mirror had a mouth
Man and his motive found only shards
With no one to see, Silica had shattered
Those who looked beyond that wounded city’s shuttered eyes
Say they saw a mountain of spindles
Cob webbed
All that wood unused
Sat still and sleeping

© TJ Dema
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, 2013

Translations:

Language: german

DIE GESCHICHTE DER VERBORGENEN SPINDEL

Dies ist, was man sich erzählt
Vor langer Zeit einmal
In der Stadt Silizium
Nachdem der letzte Seidenwurm verstarb
Verlegten wir uns auf Essen statt Kleidung
Wir tauschten nicht, sondern nahmen
Und machten Kleider aus Milch
Treibstoff aus Korn, den Resten essbarer Öle
Wir hatten uns selbst aufgebraucht
Und konnten das Gefühl nicht mehr halten ohne Schauspiel
Den ganzen karamellfarbenen Tag zogen Stockhände Getreide aus Feldern
Nachts ohne einen Baum in Sicht
Der Himmel stürzte ein bis in den Morgen
Wir lagen gehüllt in die Pro Kilo Dämpfe des Lebens
Zum ersten Mal starben auf der Welt mehr Menschen
an einem Tag als nur
Afrikaner, gerupft von der Armut mit ihrer profanen und verdrießlichen Hand
Dann, eines Tages, als wir uns zurückzogen
Aus den Feldern kam ein Mann mit einer Krone
Aus Schalen und Palmblättern, durchschaubar nur nicht für die Kinder
Gelbbraun und golden, mit Nadeln in den Augen geboren
Die Schenkel ihrer Mütter zugenäht, nicht mit Fäden, sondern Lügen
Der Väter, die flachsartig
Dahinwelkten unterm Lehm des Tages
Sie hatten lange schon ihre zweitrangigen Pflichten abgestreift
Um wieder Männerattrappen zu werden
Versteh, sagten sie ihren blinden Söhnen und Töchtern
Wir konnten nicht mehr als einen Titel tragen, mehr als einen Namen
Und so entschieden die mit einer Wahl
Nur Männer zu sein
Als wir einmal sahen, dass wir tot waren
Vor allem die in Röcken mit unseren Kleinen
Wie Abfall unter die Lebenden geworfen, als wären wir genauso
Lebendig
Die Furcht streckte Phantomfinger aus
Mit Flügeln wie Merkur, nahrungssuchende Boten zu Söldnern gemacht
Voller Angst, der Spiegel hätte ein Maul
Der Mensch und sein Streben fanden nur Scherben
Mit keinem, der es sah, war Silizium zersprungen
Jene, die hinter die verschlossenen Augen der verwundeten Stadt blickten
Sagen, sie sahen einen Berg Spindeln
Spinnwebenüberzogen
All das ungenutzte Holz
Lag still und schlafend da

Übersetzung: Susanna Mewe – Lektorat: Norbert Lange
previous poem
   (CIRCUMCISION)
5 / 7
nächstes Gedicht
(BREAD FOR THE BIRDS)   
listen to all poems

TJ Dema

photo © P. Rolinec / 8ties baby
* , Gaborone, Botswana
lives in: Gaborone,

Tjawangwa Dema is an award-winning poet, occasional essayist and arts administrator. Her collection The Careless Seamstress won won the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and is an Honorary Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol.

In 2020 her play Food of the Gods was commissioned as part of Popelei Theatre’s award-winning digital season. She is alumna of the HarperCollins Author Academy in Children’s Fiction. She has given readings and facilitated workshops in over twenty countries. Her work has been translated into numerous languages and a translated collection is forthcoming in German. She has been longlisted for the Women Poets’ Prize and shortlisted for Bristol City Poet. TJ sits on the Bristol Poetry Institute Partnerships Board as well as the Lyra: Bristol Poetry Festival steering committee. She co-produces the Africa Writes – Bristol festival.

 photo © P. Rolinec / 8ties baby
Publications
  • The Sonic Slam Chorus

    CD

    2011

  • Mandible

    chapbook

    Slapering Hol Press, USA, 2014

  • The Careless Seamstress

    Poetry Book

    University of Nebraska Press, USA. 2019,

Awards
  • 2018 Sillerman First Book Prize New ...

Links
  • Blog

    Website
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqFBW_4a_zM

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