28 February 2012

TALES FROM DADDIMA

TALES FROM DADDIMA  
     (1907 - 1968)  
© Farouk Asvat  

In the early morning air
Grapevine shadows traipse
On the sunbeam polished yard:
I saw her death
Through youth
Through the distance of a windowpane
Understanding only what she said:
     Allah, O Merciful One,
     Call me into Your arms
     Before the Group Areas
     Take me away
To a veld, a hill of waving grass,
And prickly pears that stay with me
Like memories of mulberry stains
Stolen from the churchyard,
While the burning grass of a veldfire
Gives rise to a bleak township
Of white mansions
With opulent faces.

My earth is broken.
This red loam I have come to feel
Through running fingers
(From the distance
 Of a misty shore,
 Another desert by the sea)
Has dispelled the piss of my youth
Covered it with the pane
And mortar of a new age:

The mielies I planted
Growing like I grew,
Mudponds that kept goldfish for a day,
Clingpeach blossoms I waited for,
The evening cool of granadilla vines,
The soothing call of the azaan
As I broke my fast with dates and fahluda,
Fowls I played with in their coops
That clamped my jaws at maghrib
And brought godzilla into my bed
Wet with fear,
The admonishments of my father,
The boomslang that came to play
Out of the rotting brickwork
And flaking lime
Because I liked whistling at night,
The apricots that fell with silence in the night
While the alley cats howled
Like children crying,
The quinces I climbed
Playing on silver zinc roofs,
Socks I wore to sleep,
Pulling my hair when ambulances sirened:
- They're not coming to take me away? -
Covering my head with a knotted hanky
So the bats won't stick to my hair

Or the impunity of monkeys
Stealing roti straight off the tavvah,
Hot and ready;
And the peasants living in banyan trees
Eating leaves like paan
For the monsoon season,
And mambas long as rivers;
Hot clammy nights on the stoep
With mosquitoes and rats for company
In the village in India

That my grandmother left
On the SS Karanja
That brought her with a trunkload of memories
To meet a lanky man on a bicycle
Hawking from the sea of Natal
That looked like Mumbai
(Marak par Takoli via Delguba Bay)
To build a house of sandbricks
Near the banks of the Schoonspruit

These are all gone.
In one final breath:

The time my father and I
Tried to rescue a turtle dove
With a handkerchief at the end of a stick
From an abandoned mineshaft,
The time we lay our heads down
On eiderdowns behind the shopcounter
In prayers that smelled of incense
And the more mundane tastes
Of tobacco, soap and malt
Asking Allah to bring my Daddima back
Through another diabetic coma
Through another amputation
(this time above the knee)
That left her with an assertive dignity:
A proud woman in a silk sari
Who walked the city streets with impunity
Hand in hand with her favourite grandson:
Taking me to the best sweetmeat shop
Run by a dirty-grey-overalled man,
For the best haircut in town
By a cripple with a crutch and stump,
Long John Silver minus his parrot,
On Seventeen Street, Fietas,
Where else?

But all this is nostalgia.
In the end
She no longer moved from her bed
Holding a life together;
All ended in sleep,
Without fuss or bother,
As a serene pigeon comes
To rest on her face

As she lies on a cold cement floor:
The butcher's freezer
The bedroom of my youth
Used surreptitiously
Because of the Law
Because it was once rented
To a white man from Lithuania;
Covered in a plain cotton shroud
Smelling of camphor
Meant to keep the rot at bay;
As I think of my destiny:
Born in the embrace of a mosque
Birdshit growing from my forehead
An aunt prophesying
A destiny of anguish;

As visitors come sobbing with red eyes,
My father's eyes swollen
For he said he cared for her
While I comfort him;
Neighbours and aunties come
In business suits and white robes
To wail a last performance,
As I look with the dignity of my youth
Into her face,
Quiet forever.

No more stories.
There will be no more stories
No cheerful blasphemies against friends
No more curses
No more the laughter of visitors

After her last journey
Across the railway line
There is only the cold earth,
The cold earth will take her forever
As it received her amputated leg
Without ceremony,
Only prayers muttered
Devoured by oblivion
Or the unwelcome fires
And the crushing of the ribs

But still
A headstone
Will proclaim a place for her
After the first rains have collapsed her earth
And buried her flowers
Near a travelling Turk
Resting since the turn of the century
Until the awakening by the trumpets

We raise our hands
White kufiyas covering our heads
Offering prayers
To my grandmother
Who loved life
And left a gift
I cherish forever


© farouk asvat

composed: 21.06.1985 [Joubert Park, Johannesburg, South Africa under apartheid].

[] Acknowledgements:

Tales From Daddima was previously published in:

     Screens And Tasted Parallels (Palo Alto, USA, # 2, p8-11, 1990);
     New Contrast (Cape Town, # 74 & 75, p78-82, 1991);
     A Celebration Of Flames (piquant publications, p38-44, 2007);
     www.faroukasvat-poems.blogspot.com (28.02.2012);
     A Celebration Of Flames (kindle, 2014);
     A Celebration Of Flames (paperback, p40-45, 2014).

     "Your grandmother is lucky to have someone like you."
           Basil Davidson, personal correspondence

     "Beautiful.  My words fall very short of what you deserve."
           Jill Townsend, personal correspondence
______________________________________________________________
[§] Books by Farouk Asvat:

Sadness In The House Of Love (novel)
The Gathering Of The Storm (novel)
I Dream In Long Sentences (poetry)
The Wind Still Sings Sad Songs (poetry)
A Celebration Of Flames (poetry)
The Time Of Our Lives (poetry)
Bra Frooks … (poetry)*
The Paanies Are Coming (short stories)*
In The House Of Love (novel)*
Weapons Of Words (comparative literature & literary criticism)

¨ all my books are now available on amazon: in paperback & kindle
______________________________________________________________
© farouk asvat.  All rights reserved.

Farouk Asvat asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means whatsoever, or transmitted in any form or any means whatsoever, mechanical or electronic, including recording, printing, photocopying, or via any computerised means or media, including the internet.  This publication shall also not be stored in a retrieval system.  And the writing shall not be sold, lent, hired, resold or circulated in any form or binding or cover other than that in which it is published,
without the prior permission of the author in writing.
Permission to publish or reproduce the writings in any format can be obtained from the author.
Reproduction of this work without permission, except for scholarly & nonprofit purposes,
is liable to a payment of 10, 000 ren men bi or US$ 1,500.

farouk asvat can be contacted at: farouk.asvat@gmail.com

[] please check out my blogs @:





books by farouk asvat: www.faroukasvat-books.blogspot.com

[] also link up on:






amazon kindle author @ www.amazon.com/author/faroukasvat

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
the NOVEL Sadness In The House Of Love by Farouk Asvat
is now available on amazon: in paperback @ $15 & kindle @ only $5
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

#love #literature #fiction #novel #poetry #southafrica #apartheid #books #classics
#faroukasvat #weapons of words  #comparative literature #literary criticism
#a celebration of flames #tales #from #daddima #grandmother


21 February 2012

THE DEATH OF STEVE BIKO

THE DEATH OF STEVE BIKO  
© Farouk Asvat  

This yearning for life
Is like death, my love:
The death of Steve
Who brought a shift in our consciousness
Whose hovering face
Still haunts our waking memories.

     But your death is the last anger.
     We'll stand no more like Christ
     Our backs to the wall
     Crucified by a bullet
     Through the head.

     We'll speak in silence
     Slither in subterranean streams
     Announce ourselves unannounced
     In whispers that explode
     Into silence


© farouk asvat

composed: 1985 [johannesburg, south africa under apartheid]

STEVE BIKO was assassinated in prison by the South African apartheid regime 
on 12 September 1997. 

The Death Of Steve Biko was previously published in:
     A Celebration Of Flames (donker, p11, 1987);
     Dokumente Texte Und Tendenzen VIII, (Evangelische Akademie, Germany, p106, 1987);
     Heller Fund (University of California, Berkeley, USA, p20, 1988);
     Matatu (Göttingen, Germany, # 3/4, p189, 1988);
     Perspectives 5: South Africa (Ernst Klett Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany, p31, 1988),
          ed. Kurt Sontheim [& Teacher's Text + Cassette recording # 8];
     Saasm News (SAASM, Boston, USA, vol 1 (2), p15, 1988);
     De Dood Van Steve: Dutch translation by Irene Scheltes, (1989);
     Cadernos Do Terceiro Mundo (Manaus, Brazil, # 135, p37, 1990):
          Interview with Farouk Asvat by Josefa Salmon,
          + Portuguese translation by Josefa Salmón: A Morte de Steve Biko;
     African Literature In The Eighties (Matatu 10), ed D Riemenschneider, F Schulze-Engler,
          (Rodopi, Amsterdam, Netherlands & Atlanta, 1993);
     Notre Librairie (ed. Denise Coussy, Clef, Paris, France, # 122, p142, Apr-Jun 1995),
     + French translation by Pauline Baggio: La Mort de Steve Biko;
     YouTube: A Morte De Steve Biko,
          Portuguese translation by Josefa Salmón;
          & music by Anibal Werneck,: 2000);
     The AnthroGlobe Journal, Esthétique poétique et poétisation(s) de l’histoire, Urbain Amoa,

          (Ecole Normale Supérieure- Abidjan, posted: 3 December 2005,

          (Conférence prononcée à l’Université de Wits, Johannesburg, 3 September 1998),

          + French translation by Pauline Baggio: La Mort de Steve Biko (1995);

     Çağdaş Güney Afrïka Şïrï Antolojïsï,

          (Contemporary South African Poetry Anthology),

          (Bencekitap Publishing, Istanbul, p234, 2013):

          Turkish translation by İlyas Tunç: Steve Biko ’nun Ölümü;

     ΜΙΑ ΓΙΟΡΤΗ ΤΩΝ ΦΛΟΓΩΝ

         Ο ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΣΤΗΒ ΜΠΙΚΟ  

          Greek translation by Paulos Ioannou

          (to be published in kindle & amazon paperback);

     A Celebration Of Flames (piquant publications, p25, 2007).

     https://faroukasvat-poems.blogspot.com/2012/02/death-of-steve-biko.html (21.02.2012); *

     A Celebration Of Flames (kindle, 2014);

     A Celebration Of Flames (amazon paperback, p?, 2014).

___________________________________________________________________________    

¨ AUDIO 

German Studio recording:

     farouk asvat reciting:

     • Possibilities For A Man Hunted By SBs

     • The Death Of Steve Biko

     • Massacre At Sharpeville

(Perspectives 5: South Africa, ed Kurt Sontheim, teacher's text + cassette recording # 8,

    Ernst Klett Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany, 1988).

___________________________________________________________________________    

[§] Books by Farouk Asvat:


Sadness In The House Of Love (novel)

The Gathering Of The Storm (novel)

I Dream In Long Sentences (poetry)

The Wind Still Sings Sad Songs (poetry)

A Celebration Of Flames (poetry)

The Time Of Our Lives (poetry)

This Masquerade (short stories)

Bra Frooks … (poetry)*

The Paanies Are Coming (short stories)*

In The House Of Love (novel)*

Weapons Of Words (comparative literature & literary criticism)


¨ all my books are now available on amazon: in paperback & kindle

@ https://www.amazon.com/author/faroukasvat

___________________________________________________________________________    

[] please check out my blogs @:


poems: https://faroukasvat-poems.blogspot.com

weapons of words: https://faroukasvat-viewpoint.blogspot.com

piquante: https://faroukasvat-piquant.blogspot.com

piqued: https://faroukasvat-piqued.blogspot.com

streetwise: https://faroukasvat-lingo.blogspot.com

quran: https://quran-faroukasvat.blogspot.com

quran lectures: https://faroukasvat-quran.blogspot.com

verse: https://faroukasvat-verse.blogspot.com

notes: https://faroukasvat-notes.blogspot.com

biography: https://faroukasvat-bio.blogspot.com

stories: https://faroukasvat-stories.blogspot.com

reviews: https://faroukasvat-reviews.blogspot.com

books by farouk asvat: https://faroukasvat-books.blogspot.com


[] please join me on:


linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/farouk-asvat-52a6b642

linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/farouk-asvat-52a6b642

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/faroukasvat

twitter: https://twitter.com/faroukasvat

youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDlracNOh9E/faroukasvat

amazon kindle author @ https://www.amazon.com/author/faroukasvat

___________________________________________________________________________    

LA MORT DE STEVE BIKO  

     French translation by © Pauline Baggio

 

Cette soif de vie

ressemble à la mort, mon Amour:

la Mort de Steve

qui a fait changer notre conscience

Dont le visage

Hante encore nos mémoires vivantes

 

     Mais la mort et la dernière colère

     Nous ne nous tiendrons plus comme le Christ

     Le dos au mur

     Crucifié par une balle

     Qui nous traverse

 

     Nous parlerons en silence

     Glisserons dans les ruisseaux souterrains

     Annoncerons notre venue à l’improviste

     Par des murmures explosant

     De silence

 

     French translation by © Pauline Baggio

___________________________________________________________________________    

DE DOOD VAN STEVE BIKO 

     Dutch tanslation by © Irene Scheltes


Dit smachten naar leven

Is als de dood, mijn lief:

De dood van Steve

Die ons bewustzijn verandere

Wiens zwevende gezicht

Voortleeft in onze herinnering.


     Maar jouw dood is de ultieme woede.

     Wij staan niet langer als Christus

     Onze rug tegen de muur

     Gekruisigd door een kogel

     Door het hoofd.


     Wij zullen zwigend spreken

     In ondergrondse stromen slippen

     Ons aandienen onaangediend

     In gefluister dat uiteenspat

     In stilte


     Dutch tanslation by kind permission of © Irene Scheltes

___________________________________________________________________________    

STEVE BIKO’NUN ÖLÜMÜ  

     Turkish translation by © İlyas Tunç


Yaşam arzusu

Ölüm gibidir, sevgilim:

Bilincimizde bir değişim yaratan

Etrafımızda dolanan görüntüsüyle

Hala tetikteki anılarımızı yoklayan

Steve’in ölümü gibi.


     Ama senin ölümün son öfkedir.

     İsa gibi katlanmayacağız artık

     Sırtlarımız duvarda

     Kafalarımızı delip geçen

     Bir kurşunla öldürülmüş biçimde.


      Konuşacağız suskunluk içinde

     Düşe kalka yürüyeceğiz yer altı sularında

     Duyuracağız kendimizi kimseye sormadan

     Sessizlikte patlayan

     Fısıltılarla.


     Turkish translation by kind permission of © İlyas Tunç

___________________________________________________________________________    

A MORTE DE STEVE BIKO  

     Portuguese translation by © Josefa Salmón


Esta ânsia de viver

É como a morte, meu amor:

A morte de Steve Biko

Que alterou nossa consciência.

E cujo rosto verdadeiro

Ainda vive em nossa recente memória.


     Mas a tua morte é a tua última revolta.

     Não ficaremos mais como Cristo

     Acuados de encontro ao muro

     Crucificado por uma

     Bala na cabeça.


     Falaremos em silêncio

     Conduzidos por rios subterrâneos

     Far-nos-emos ouvir sem sermos anunciados

     Em murmúrios que explode

     Em silêncio


     Portuguese translation by © Josefa Salmón

___________________________________________________________________________    

Ο ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΣΤΗΒ ΜΠΙΚΟ  

     Greek translation by © Paulos Ioannou


Αυτή η λαχτάρα για ζωή 

Είναι σαν τον θάνατο, αγάπη μου:

Ο θάνατος του Στηβ

Που έφερε μετάθεση στη συνείδησή μας 

Του οποίου το υπερίπτατο πρόσωπο 

Εξακολουθεί να στοιχειώνει τις ξύπνιες αναμνήσεις μας.

 

     Αλλά ο θάνατός σου είναι ο τελευταίος θυμός. 

     Δεν θα σταθούμε πια σαν τον Χριστό 

     Με την πλάτη μας στον τοίχο

     Σταυρωμένοι από σφαίρα 

     Θα μιλήσουμε σιωπηλά  

 

Θα γλιστρήσουμε σε υπόγεια ρεύματα 

Θα αναγγείλουμε τον εαυτό

μας απροειδοποίητα 

Με ψίθυρους που εκρήγνυνται

Στη σιωπή


     Greek translation by © Paulos Ioannou

___________________________________________________________________________    

© farouk asvat.  All rights reserved.

Farouk Asvat asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means whatsoever, or transmitted in any form or any means whatsoever, mechanical or electronic, including recording, printing, photocopying, or via any computerised means or media, including the internet.  This publication shall also not be stored in a retrieval system.  And the writing shall not be sold, lent, hired, resold or circulated in any form or binding or cover other than that in which it is published,

without the prior permission of the author in writing.

Permission to publish or reproduce the writings in any format can be obtained from the author.

Reproduction of this work without permission, except for scholarly & nonprofit purposes,

is liable to a payment of 10, 000 ren men bi or US$ 1,500.


[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

the NOVEL Sadness In The House Of Love by Farouk Asvat

is now available on amazon: in paperback @ $15 & kindle @ only $5

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]


#love #literature #fiction #novel #poetry #southafrica #apartheid #books #classics

#faroukasvat #weapons #of #words #comparative #literature #literary #criticism

#dream #long #sentences #the #death #of #steve #biko #stevebiko


https://faroukasvat-poems.blogspot.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/farouk-asvat-52a6b642

https://en.everybodywiki.com/Farouk_Asvat

https://www.amazon.com/author/faroukasvat


[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]



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