SONNET 34 van John Berryman in

Afrikaans.
"To terrify and comfort, not to understand."
Deur Pieter Uys

"In response to the perceived difficulty of the dream songs, in

Dream Song 366, Berryman facetiously wrote: These Songs are
1

not meant to be understood, you understand. / They are only

meant to terrify & comfort."*1

SONNET 34
'I couldn't leave you' you confessed next day.
Or law too binds. Grossly however bound
And jacketed apart, ensample-wound,
We come so little and can so little stay
Together, what can we know? Anything may
Amaze me: this did. Ah, to work underground
Slowly and wholly in your vein profound...
Or like some outcast ancient Jew to say:

'There is Judea: in it Jerusalem:

In that the Temple: in the Temple's inmost
Holy of holies hides the invisible Ark
There nothingthere allvast wing beating dark
Voiceless, the terrible I AMthe lost
Tables of stone with the Law graved on them!'
2

SONNET 34
'Ek kan jou nie verlaat nie! het jy die dag daarn bely.
ns wet bind ook. Hoewel dit so beklemmend bind,
Verhul dit ons afsonderlik, relmatig eensgesind.
Ons kom so min, en kan so min bymekaar bly,
Wat kan ons werklik weet? Enigiets kan my
Verstom: dit het. Sowaar, om ondergronds te bou
Kalm, jou taak volkome in die are skuil te hou
Of soos n verstote Jood van ouds jou te verbly:

'Daar is Judea: waarin Jerusalem:

waarin die Tempel: in die Tempel se binneste
Allerheiligste skuil die onsigbare Ark
Daar niksdaar allesreusevlerk wat duister hark
Stemloos, die verskriklike EK ISdie verlore
Klippanele met die Wet daarop ingelem!'

Met dank aan Clair Cantrell vir haar hulp met die vertaling, waarsonder ek dit nie sou kon voltooi
nie.

Hooglied van Salomo 2:9

Daar staan hy agter ons muur! Hy kyk deur die vensters, hy tuur deur die
hortjies heen.
Bheka, umi emva kodonga lwakwethu; uyalunguza emafasiteleni,
ubonakala ngaseheleni.
He stands behind our wall, observing through the windows, peering
through the lattices.
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Eccolo, egli sta dietro al nostro muro, guarda dalle finestre, lancia occhiate
attraverso l'inferriata.

WE CALL UPON THE AUTHOR

Nick Cave
Bukowski was a jerk!
Berryman was best!
He wrote like wet papier-mach
But he went the Hemingway
Weirdly on wings and with maximum pain
We call upon the author to explain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyGivD8aJi4

BIBLIOGRAFIE
Berryman, John. Selected Poems 1938 1968. Faber & Faber, Londen,
1977.

*1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_berryman

DISKOGRAFIE
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! Mute Records Ltd, 2008.
Cave, Nick. We Call Upon the Author.
http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858710069/

FOTOS en ILLUSTRASIES
Tempel http://www.templeinstitute.org/gallery_28.htm
Soldate by die Muur

http://www.idfblog.com/2012/05/20/three-faces-the-story-of-jerusalems-

reunification/jerusalemday/

Die Muur Verlig in die Nag http://www.bookingisrael.com/Israel-Tours/ClassicalIsrael-Tours

Nick Cave album http://www.discogs.com/Nick-Cave-The-Bad-Seeds-Dig-LazarusDig/master/23223
Berrymans Sonnets 1968 UK edition
http://royturnerbooks.co.uk/Poetry/Default.aspx