1 minute read
Online: To Rika
Trinity Journal of Literary Translation | 57
Online: To Rika
Advertisement
trans. Sherence De Jongh
Only one time have I seen you. You were Seated in an express train, which then passed, My train, and with full speed going faster The acquaintance could not be more curtailed
Yet still, it lasted long enough, for me To continue on this endless life path With a faded smile. Ah! Since I saw thee Not one little smile was filled with such glee
Also, why do you have such fair blonde hair Which bears the resemblance of angels? And then Why those blue eyes, wonderfully deep and clear? You sure knew, that I could not withstand them!
Why then did your train race past myself, And not if a flash pushes the carriage, And around my neck your arms are held, And our mouths and lips are met in marriage?
Perhaps you feared a railroad tragedy? But, RIKA, what could be more delicious, Than, under clamour and calamity, To be crushed with you under a carriage?
58 | Afrikaans Die digteres
Ek laat die fakkellig van sterre in my hare en in my oë brand, en in die stadsnag met sy verre wysheid hou ek die robots in my hand.
Ek is die hoof en wagter van my stad, en in die skou is ek die danseres, In hierdie glorie het ek jou nooit liefgehad – is jy die bode, ek die kroonprinses.
En tog, as ek jou so sien gaan, jy wat eenmaal my lewe was, bly ek in eensaamheid ontnugter staan, bly ek tog menslik aan jou vas.
Ag, laat my dan geen digter wees, maar net ’n soet, onskuldig kind wat in jou arms eindelik onbevrees beskermd lê teen hierdie bitter wind.
Laat my ’n onbewuste meisie wees, wat needrig om jou gunste vra, maar wat jou liggaam en jou gees se einddoel eendag heilig in my dra. Ingrid Jonker
Ingrid Jonker. 19 September 1933 Douglas, Northern Cape. – 19 July 1965 Cape town. Die Huisgenoot Magazine, 18 March 1955
