Literary Translation

Chantelle Gray van Heerden translates Eybers and Breytenbach

 

Neergang

Die liggaam word terloops.
Handholte en oog skep raakpunte: genoeg.
As lippe ook raak, is dit beseëling
van teerheid en vertoue, sonder stroom
wat striem tot smelting. Vind dit nogtans plaas
dan bly dit ’n soort oordruk van die droom
en weloorwoë, sonder nood of haas,
’n sagte hulde aan herinnering.

© Elisabeth Eybers

(val)

my oë kom nou nooit weer los
my hande is hopeloos in jou rugwerwels verstrik
my duime ken hul vingermaats nie
en my voete sal in jou koeltes bly sit
xxxxxxaanbiddend

iewers het my hart in jou verdwaal
sonder spoor of veranding van adres
’n klip het uit die aardkors losgekom
en stort nou hoër die ruimte in
xxxxxxen nader aan gebed

’n voël sprei haar vlerke
word deur die lug op die hande gedra
ek is so lug jy vlieg deur my
sonder jou is ek sonder patroon
want jy is die eiesinnigheid van my liggaam
xxxxxxso ver reeds verby
dat ek skaamteloos om ontbinding bid

© Breyten Breytenbach


Decline

The body becomes incidental.
Hand-cavity and eye form contact points: sufficient.
If lips then meet it marks the seal
of tenderness and trust, devoid of the deluge
that wounds to thaw. Still it transpires,
lingering as a kind of vestige of the dream
and deliberation, without urgency or haste,
in homage to remembrance.

 © Chantelle Gray van Heerden

(falling)

never again shall my eyes be free
my hands helplessly entangled in your ribcage
my thumbs unrecognisable to their finger-mates
and my feet forever in your eclipses seated
xxxxxxin worship

somewhere inside you my heart has gotten lost
without trace or change of address
an asteroid has loosened itself from the earth’s crust,
making its way deeper into space
xxxxxxever-nearer to prayer

a bird spreads her wings
is carried on the hands of the wind
I so light that you fly through me
without you I have no discernible shape
for you are the backbone of my body
xxxxxxso far beyond reach now
that I shamelessly pray for dissolution

© Chantelle Gray van Heerden

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