Soon to be released in a second edition, Land of Sunlight and Stars: Afrikaans Verse in Translation, foreword by Prime Minister F.W. de Klerk, introduction by Ambassador Sammuel Golden, verse translations by Michael Curtis, illustrations by Luan Serfontein, edited by Gerhard Golden.
Land of Sunlight and Stars
The intimate art of poetry speaks mind to mind over vast distances of time and place. Poetry touches the heart when through translation a foreigner speaks to our common humanity. In meter and rhyme poetry echoes the pace of the day, the beat of the heart, the wind on the plain, the place, the accent, the wink of the eye. All of that and more is found in Land of Sunlight and Stars. Afrikaans Verse in Translation
Thirty-one verses of thirty Afrikaner poets sweep over the veld in meter to the hoof beat of oxen, in rhyme with the trekkers who with God in their hearts and the Good Book in hand settled South Africa. In Afrikaner poetry you will experience storm, hardship, love, the settlement of families, the building of cities, the establishment of institutions, and the foraging by common experience a common language made sturdy by trial, made beautiful by virtue.
The verses of the Land of Sunlight and Stars defined a people and established a culture. Illustrated with intense African color in bold Afrikaner symbolism, Luan Serfontein’s illustrations settle you on an African page. And on that page a poem both in the Afrikaans original and in English verse translation so that moving from text to text you might hear, feel, and understand the people of the land. Afrikaans Verse in Translation
Afrikaans and English are sister languages, both derived from West-Germanic Indo-European. Afrikaners and we Americans share a settler history and have many traits in common, not the least is Christendom, the moral code, excellence in pursuit of perfections pleasing to God. When translating, I felt a kinship with the Afrikaner, fellows who for freedom of worship braved danger and numerous almost unbearable hardships, and this with simple faith and good humor.
To locate the poems in context, Prime Minister de Klerk and Ambassador Golden offer a sympathetic history of the Afrikaner and by extension of all we wandering people of the earth. If honest, translators will admit that though intending perfect fealty to the original poet, failure is certain. The most we can hope in literary translation is the carrying of a fellow poet into a second language and second life. Afrikaans Verse in Translation
Below, my apology.
If the verse contained herein
Does not read or rhyme or scan,
Please understand that these sins
Are mine, not the Afrikans’.
* * *
Land of Sunlight and Stars
Afrikaans Verse in Translation
* * *
For similar and related stories, you might like to visit
and other essays at The Studio Books, Annals.
* * *
Acknowledgements: Verses from the first South African edition appeared in Leo Yankevich’s The New Formalist, Arthur Mortenson’s Expansive Poets journal, Esther Cameron’s The Neovictorian/Cochlea, Pivot, and Superior Christian News.
Reserve a copy of the Second American Edition, coming soon.
Purchase a copy of the Second African Edition, coming soon.
* * *
