63 Die lied van desperasie / radeloosheid van Pablo Neruda

63 Die lied van desperasie / radeloosheid van Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda is die skuilnaam / skryfnaam van Ricardo Reyes y Basoalto (1904-1973) wat beskou word as een van die grootse digters van die twintigste eeu. (1) As u bekend met Pablo Neruda se gedigte is sou u opgemerk het dat die een en twintig gedigte wat ek hierdie week gepubliseer het of na Neruda of in antwoord op hom geskryf is met toepassing op sy bundel Viente poemas de amor y una canción desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair). Hierdie bundel was ‘n blitsverkoper en het Neruda een van die beroemste digters in Suid-Amerika gemaak. (2)

Dit is bekend dat Neruda ‘n goeie verbeelding het en eers ‘n simbolis was, toe ‘n surrealis en einde laaste ‘n realis. (3) Miskien skryf ons maar in al hierdie kuns arias en nogtans bly uiterste realisme vir my belangrik veral by historiese, sosiale en oorlog gedigte. Miskien sien ek dit as die oordraging van ‘n tipe uiterste waarheid. Neruda het in 1971 die Nobel Prys vir letterkunde gewen. Dat sy politieke oortuiging die van ‘n geswore kommunis was (4) gaan my nie aan nie. Wat vir my die meeste van belang is, is ‘n digter se kuns. Ek kyk na die boodskappe wat ‘n digter se gedigte oordra, die tegnieke, vakmanskap en meesterlikheid van die gedigte en vir my is Neruda een van die grootste digters van ons tyd.

Netsoos W. H. Auden het Neruda gedigte geskryf om sosiale verandering te probeer te weeg te bring. (4) Miskien raak mens met tye te oortuig dat gedigte druk op ‘n regering of regerings kan plaas om onderdrukkende wette te verander.

Dit is ironies dat waar sekere Suid-Afrikaanse digters en kritici heeltemal negatief is teen liefdes gedigte en dit nie as letterkundig beskou nie, dit juis hierdie soort gedigte is en van verlore liefde wat Neruda aanvanklik beroemd gemaak het.

In sy gedig“La Canción Desesperada” “The song of Despair” beskryf Neruda meesterlik die desperasie, radeloosheid wat tot mens kom nadat ‘n verhouding opgebreek het en vind mens ‘n tipe skoonheid in daardie soort weemoed of hartseer (as mens dit so kan noem.) Daar is sekerlik menigte gedigte al geskryf oor verlore liefde, maar vir my span Neruda se gedig die kroon op hierdie soort hartseer, dalk berustende liefdes gedigte en bou hy meesterlike ander elemente ook in.

Laat ek sy gedig La Canción Desesperada” “The song of Despair” hier aanhaal:

“The memory of you emerges from the night around me.
The river mingles its stubborn lament with the sea.”

“Deserted like the dwarves at dawn.
It is the hour of departure, ho deserted one!”

“Cold flower heads are raining over my heart.”
Oh pit of debris, fierce cave of the shipwrecked.”

“In you the wars and the flights accumulated.
From you the wings of the song birds rose.”

“It was the happy hour of assault and the kiss.
The hour of the spell that blazed like a lighthouse.”

“Pilot’s dread, fury of a blind diver,
turbulent drunkenness of love, in your everything sank!”

“In the childhood of mist my soul, winged and wounded.
Lost discoverer, in you everything sank!”

“You girded sorrow, your clung to desire,
Sadness stunned you, in you everything sank!”

“I made the wall of shadow draw back,
Beyond desire and act, I walked on.”

“Oh flesh, my own flesh, woman whom I loved and lost,
I summon you in the moist hour, I raise my song to you.”

“Like a jar you housed the infinite tenderness,
and the infinite oblivion shattered you like a jar.”

“There was the black solitude of the islands,
and there, woman of love, your arms took me in.”

“There were thirst and hunger, and your were the fruit.
There were grief and the ruins, and you were the miracle.”

“Ah woman, I do not know how you could contain me
in the earth of your soul, in the cross of your arms!”

“How terrible and brief was my desire for you!
How difficult and drunken, how tensed and avid.”

“Cemetery of kisses, there is still fire in your tombs,
still the fruited boughs burn, pecked at by birds.”

“Oh the bitten mouth, oh the kissed limbs,
oh the hungering teeth, oh the entwined bodies.”

“Oh the mad coupling of hope and effort
in which we merged and despaired.”

“And the tenderness, light as water and as flour.
And the word scarcely begun on the lips.”

“This was my destiny and in it was the voyage of my longing,
and in it my longing fell, in you everything sank!”

“Oh pit of debris, everything fell into you,
what sorrow did you not express, what waves did not drown you.”

“From billow to billow you still called and sang.
Standing like a sailor in the prow of a vessel.”

“Pale blind diver, luckless slinger,
lost discoverer, in you everything sank!”

“It is the hour of departure, the hard cold hour
which the night fastens to all the timetables.”

“The rustling belt of the sea girdles the shore.
Cold stars heave up, black birds migrate.”

“Deserted like the wharves at dawn.
Only the tremulous shadow twists in my hands.”

“Oh farther than everything. Oh farther that everything.”

“It is the hour of departure. Oh abandoned one!”

Hier is my poging tot ‘n lied van desperasie / van radeloosheid (Ek sluit my Engelse gedig ook in aangesien dit makliker met die aangehaalde gedig van Neruda kan vergelyk):

Die lied van desperasie

(na Pablo Neruda)

Op die een of ander manier is jy weg uit my herinnering.
Die nag breek stadig aan, kom met vreedsaamheid.

Eensaam is ons eens gelukkige huis want jy is weg,
my hele lewe het verander in klip.

Jy het al ons besitting ingesluk, ‘n oop deur gelaat
en slegs leë spasies op die hout vloer.

Ek was eens in jou liefde verlore
maar jou verraad het ‘n baie hoë prys geëis.

Jy wou my net vir liggaamlike saligheid hê
en het na ‘n minnaar gegaan en dit is hoe dit is.

Te veel kere moes ek gordyne wegtrek,
in lewe en komende dood die maniere wat jy optree verander.

Te veel kere as my vrou
was jy deel van my, was jy te belangrik in my lewe.

Nou vervaag wat eens ons s’n was in vergetelheid,
want die lewe eindig nie maar beweeg net aan en aan.

Hierdie is die tyd van vertrek
as voëls na hulle neste in die natuur gaan,

as die hout in die kaggel tot as verbrand,
waar jy weg is op ‘n reis wat nooit terugkeer nie.

Veels te stadig beweeg hierdie nag aan, eens gelukkige een.

[Verwysing: “La Canción Desesperada” “The song of Despair” deur Pablo Neruda.]

The song of despair

(after Pablo Neruda)

Somehow you are missing from my memory.
The night falls slowly, coming with tranquillity.

Deserted is our once happy home as you are gone,
my whole life has turned into stone.

You swallowed all our possessions, left an open door,
and only empty spaces on the wooden floor.

In your love I once was lost,
but your betrayal came at an extremely high cost.

You wanted me only for the body’s bliss
and went to a lover and that is the way that it is.

Too many times I had to draw curtains back,
in life and coming death change the ways that you did act.

Too many times as my wife
you were part of me, were too important in my life.

Now what was once ours fades to oblivion,
as life not ending just moves on and on.

This is the time of departure
when birds go to their nests in nature,

when to ashes wood in the fireplace burn,
when you left on a journey of no return.

Much too slowly this night moves on, once happy one.

[Reference: “La Canción Desesperada” “The song of Despair” by Pablo Neruda.]

Voetnotas:

(1) “Neruda, Pablo, pseudonym of Neftali Ricardo Reyes y Basoalto (1904-1973), Chilean poet, who is considered one of the major poets of the 20th century.” Microsoft Encarta encyclopaedia.

(2) “In 1924 his Viente poemas de amor y una canción desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, 1969), became a best-seller, making him one of Latin America’s most famous young poets.” Microsoft Encarta encyclopaedia.

(3) “A highly imaginative poet, Neruda began as a symbolist then became a surrealist, and finally a realist, forsaking the traditional formal framework of poetry for a simpler, more down-to-earth form of expression. His influence on the poetry of the Spanish-speaking peoples has been great; however, his international reputation goes far beyond the boundaries of language.” Microsoft Encarta encyclopaedia.
(4) “Pablo Neruda One of the most important poets of the 20th century, Chilean Pablo Neruda was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1971. Often called the “poet of enslaved humanity”, Neruda wrote poems advocating social reform. Politically active, Neruda served in the Chilean Senate as part of the Chilean Communist party from 1945 to 1948 and was Chile’s ambassador to France from 1970 to 1972.” Microsoft Encarta encyclopaedia.

“Auden, W(ystan) H(ugh) (1907-1973), Anglo-American poet, playwright, and literary critic, regarded by many as the most influential poet in the English language since T. S. Eliot… Auden’s early work was both a development of and a departure from the “high” Modernism of T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. In the face of high unemployment, the rise of Fascism, and the approach of war, Auden found it hard to maintain a Modernist detachment, and attempted to write a poetry that he hoped would both reflect and help to change the social conditions of the time. He soon came to believe, however, that “poetry makes nothing happen”, and subsequently suppressed or revised some of his earlier, more political work.” Microsoft Encarta encyclopaedia.