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    Skinned: Selected Poems
    Skinned: Selected Poems
    Skinned: Selected Poems
    Ebook296 pages1 hour

    Skinned: Selected Poems

    By Antjie Krog

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    About this ebook

    One of South Africa’s greatest living poets selects from her most recent poems and also from the poems and the themes that best represent her from across her long career.

    Part One of Skinned contains poems about writing, family and love poems. The poems in second part were chosen from a volume featuring a long epic poem based on the life of Lady Anne Barnard from Scotland, who accompanied her husband to Cape Town and lived in the castle there from 1797 until 1802. This volume was written during the height of apartheid and the poet chose Lady Anne as representative of the colonial vision. Part Three contains extracts from several speakers who lived in the land before the likes of lady Anne arrived. Krog includes here interviews with inhabitants of the stone desert, three re-workings of Bushmen or Xam narratives, as well as a translation of an oral Xhosa praise poem. Part Four represents the political turmoil of South Africa and the divisions within Africa. The poems come from volumes that explored how blacks and whites identifying with the oppressed were removed from official history. The present volume as a whole explores the necessity of "a change of tongue" in order to be.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSeven Stories Press
    Release dateApr 16, 2013
    ISBN9781609804640
    Skinned: Selected Poems
    Author

    Antjie Krog

    Anna Elizabeth (Antjie) Krog is op 23 Oktober 1952 in Kroonstad gebore. Sy is 18 jaar oud toe haar eerste digbundel, Dogter van Jefta, in 1970 verskyn. In 1972 verskyn Januarie-suite en dit is in 1973 met die Eugène Marais-prys bekroon. Sy behaal 'n BA-graad en honneursgraad in Engels (1973) aan die Universiteit van die Vrystaat. In 1976 verwerf sy 'n MA-graad in Afrikaans aan die Universiteit van Pretoria. Haar digbundel Jerusalemgangers is in 1987 met die Rapportprys bekroon en in 1990 ontvang Antjie die Hertzogprys vir poësie vir Lady Anne. In 1993 is sy aangestel by die tydskrif Die Suid-Afrikaan, en in 1995 begin sy as politieke verslaggewer by die SAUK te werk. Antjie lewer van 1996 tot 1998 verslag oor die Waarheids- en Versoeningskommissie. Sy verwoord haar ervarings oor die proses in Country of my Skull wat in 1998 gepubliseer is en wat met onder meer die Alan Paton-toekenning vir niefiksie en die Olive Schreiner-prys ontvang. In 2003 word die bundel Met woorde soos met kerse, wat haar Afrikaanse vertalings en herbewerkings van poësie uit Suid-Afrikaanse inheemse tale, en een van die San-tale, bevat, aangewys as die wenner van die Suid-Afrikaanse Vertalersinstituut se driejaarlikse wedstryd. Kwela Boeke publiseer in 2004 die digbundel Die sterre sê 'tsau' en dit haal die kortlys van die M-Net-prys vir poësie vir 2005. Kleur kom nooit alleen nie is in 2001 met die eerste RAU-prys vir skeppende skryfwerk bekroon. Sy is sedert 2004 'n buitengewone professor in Lettere en Wysbegeerte aan die Universiteit van die Wes-Kaap.

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    Skinned - Antjie Krog

    Krog_Skinned_150dpi.jpg

    Books by Antjie Krog

    POETRY

    Dogter van Jefta (Daughter of Jephta) (1970)

    Januarie-suite (January Suite) (1972)

    Beminde Antarktika (Beloved Antarctica) (1974)

    Mannin (Wo-man) (1974)

    Otters in bronslaai (Otters in Watercress Salad) (1981)

    Jerusalemgangers (Jerusalem-goers) (1985)

    Lady Anne (1989)

    Gedigte 1989–1995 (Poems) (1995)

    Kleur kom nooit alleen nie (Colour Never Comes Alone) (2000)

    Down to My Last Skin (2000)

    Met woorde soos met kerse (With Words as with Candles) (2002)

    Die sterre sê ‘tsau’ (2004)

    The Stars Say ‘Tsau’ (2004)

    Verweerskrif (2006)

    Body Bereft (2006)

    POETRY FOR CHILDREN

    Mankepank en ander monsters (Mankepank and Other Monsters) (1989)

    Voëls van anderster vere (Birds of Different Feathers) (1992)

    Fynbosfeetjies (Fynbos Fairies), with Fiona Moodie (2007)

    PROSE

    Relaas van ’n moord (Relaying of a Murder) (1995)

    Country of My Skull (1998)

    A Change of Tongue (2003)

    There Was This Goat, with Nosisi Mpolweni and Kopano Ratele (2009)

    Begging to be Black (2010)

    skinned

    antjie krog

    Seven Stories

    new york

    VisualTableMountain.jpeg

    © 2013 by Antjie Krog

    Published in arrangement with Umuzi, an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd., Cape Town, South Africa

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

    Seven Stories Press

    140 Watts Street

    New York, NY 10013

    www.sevenstories.com

    College professors and middle and high school teachers may order free examination copies of Seven Stories Press titles. To order, visit sevenstories.com/textbook or send a fax on school letterhead to (212) 226-1411.

    Book design by Jon Gilbert

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Krog, Antjie.

    [Poems. Selections. English]

    Skinned / Antjie Krog. -- A Seven Stories Press First edition.

    pages cm

    An original, not previously published, collection of translations

    Translations from Afrikaans and indigenous languages.

    ISBN 978-1-60980-463-3 (hardcover)

    1. Krog, Antjie--Translations into English. I. Title.

    PT6592.21.R6A2 2013

    839.3’615--dc23

    2013001626

    Printed in the United States

    9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

    Contents

    Publisher’s Note
    Author’s Note

    A Extenuating Circumstances

    poet becoming

    marital song

    sonnet of the hot flushes

    writing ode

    the men you were

    my words of love

    the day surrenders to its sadness

    illness

    morning tea

    how do you say this

    arrivals

    ma will be late

    transparency of the sole

    for my daughter

    for my son

    extenuating circumstances

    man and wife

    as the tale was told

    avowal

    paternoster

    B The Lady as Allegory

    Lady Anne Barnard at the Castle of Good Hope

    ‘I think I am the first woman’—Lady Anne on Table Mountain

    from the Castle at the Cape of Good Hope

    Lady Anne Barnard looks out on Table Bay

    Lady Anne looks out again from the Castle of Good Hope

    Lady Anne Barnard: remembered for her parties in my history book

    Lady Anne paints a watercolour of the Mission at Genadendal

    Lady Anne’s inland diary

    Lady Anne leaves the Cape

    Lady Anne as guide because a hero needs a bard

    Lady Anne to Andrew Barnard in the Cape

    Andrew Barnard at the Cape to Lady Anne in London

    Lady Anne in Wimpole

    Lady Anne got back

    neither family nor friends says Lady Anne

    ending 1

    C Colour Never Comes Alone

    nine narratives from the stone-desert in 1999

    1. Griet Farmer of Eksteenfontein

    2. Maria Johanna Domroch of Kubus

    3. old nomadic movement patterns

    4. goatfarmer oom Jakobus de Wet speaks poetry

    5. the narrative of stone

    6. on the banks of the Gariep river

    7. narrative of a diamond sorter

    8. narrative of another diamond sorter

    9. the goats

    /xam narratives (1873–1879)

    the wind

    what the stars say

    eaten by a lion

    the young man and the lion

    translations of praise poems from African languages

    praise poem for Pheladi

    until you give me a drink of water

    living the moons of the Pedi calendar

    praise poem for Desmond and Leah Tutu on his eightieth birthday

    Table Mountain rondeau in four parts

    D Vernacular White

    land

    Bessie

    every day I treat you as if you were mine

    scar-

    -tissue

    lament

    letter-poem lullaby for Ntombizana Atoo

    toilet poem

    nightmare of A Samuel born Krog

    a one dimensional song for the northern Freestate, more specifically Middenspruit

    in transit—a cycle of the early nineties

    (a)

    (b)

    (c)

    (d)

    (e)

    (f)

    litany

    some seasonal observations of Table Mountain

    country of grief and grace

    (a)

    (b)

    (c)

    (d)

    (e)

    (f)

    (g)

    becomings

    1. (CITADEL)

    2. (BEGINNING: Gorée)

    3. (GRIOT SONGS)

    4. (GRIOT’S STORY TOLD ON THE NIGER)

    5. (RIVER: N’ger-n-gereo)

    7. (BEVERAGE)

    8. (BOAT)

    9. (FREE FROM THE TYRANNY OF ONE)

    10. (POET BECOMING)

    E Body Bereft

    it is true

    since

    five menopausal sonnets

    like death in my arms

    bronze bull of Lavigny

    short visit

    hormone sonnet

    God, Death, Love

    leave me a lonely began

    when tight is loose

    softsift of the hourglass

    some seasonal observations of Table Mountain

    on my behalf

    PUBLISHER’S NOTE

    A few things have to be said first when presenting the poems of South African poet Antjie Krog to an American audience: that the poetry in Afrikaans of Antjie Krog was part of South Africa’s history for thirty years before the publication of her best known nonfiction work, Country of My Skull, a journalist’s account of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that she wrote as a correspondent and which was published here by Random House. At the age of seventeen several of her poems and an essay were awarded a Gold Diploma at the local eisteddfod (a competitive festival of music and literature). These were included in the school’s local journal and their explicit political and sexual themes provoked such an angry response from one sector of the rural town’s community that the controversy was highlighted in the national Afrikaans Sunday newspaper.

    Two of these poems took on a life of their own. Two stanzas in particular of the poem ‘My Beautiful Land’ caused a political outcry. It reads:

    look, I build myself a land

    where skin colour doesn’t count

    only the inner brand of self

    where black and white hand in hand

    can bring peace and love

    in my beautiful land

    One counterpoint to this melee was the mountain of letters of support sent, mainly by black students, to Krog’s school. Several months later an English translation of the poem appeared in the banned ANC mouthpiece in Dar es Salaam. When the first political prisoners were released from Robben Island, Ahmed Kathrada read this poem to an audience of thousands at a mass rally in Soweto at the end of October 1989, mentioning the hope that the words had instilled among those held captive on the island: ‘If a school child was saying this, we knew we would be free in our lifetime.’

    The other poem, ‘Ma,’ became a classic among Afrikaans speakers and is, to this day, arguably the most recited, set to music, quoted and taught poem in Afrikaans:

    ma

    ma I am writing a poem for you

    without fancy punctuation

    without words that rhyme

    without adjectives

    just sommer

    a barefoot poem—

    because you raise me

    in your small halting hands

    you chisel me with your black eyes

    and pointed words

    you turn your slate head

    you laugh and collapse my tents

    but every night you offer me

    to your Lord God

    your

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