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Gert Strydom, 1 czerwca 2012
She stays lingering with me (cavatina)
The eyes of my love shines like the sun,
summer fades,
in the presence of her most lovely smile,
autumn shades
against the colour of her vibrant hair,
spring degrades
against her charm and personality
and vivid she stays lingering with me.
Gert Strydom, 31 maja 2012
Snow-white of the veldt
(after A.G. Visser)
On a winter afternoon it became icy cold
as Rachel and Hendrik was searching for a calf,
when the snow suddenly started falling around them
everything was white like a huge table-cloth.
Lost and half frozen
they could not find the way home,
with the night falling black
they were blinded by the wet winter wind.
She hollowed out an anthill,
with her naked body she diverted the wind,
with her clothes pressed into the hole to shelter her brother
and so the twelve year old girl Rachel died
was devoured by the icy cold and the winter weather
while she saved the life of her seven year old brother.
[References: “Sneeuwitjie” (Snow-white) by A.G. Visser. In the book “Sketse uit die Lewe van Mens en dier” (Sketches in the lives of humans and animals) by Eugène Marais the incident is noted of the twelve year old girl Rachel de Beer who saved the life of her seven year old brother near to the Drakensberg mountains.]
Gert Strydom, 31 maja 2012
Ort Jan van Hunks
Many years back an old pirate
Ort Jan van Hunks lived in Cape Town
and he had gathered enough loot
to live an honest life.
Just above the company gardens
he bought some land
and he thought that trustful slaves
would do the work for him
while he would watch his vineyards grow
and it would be possible
to give attention to his weaknesses.
The loneliness caught up with van Hunks
and he got himself a wife
but in Cape Town
at that time the choices was slim
and he was married to a huge woman
that was so broad
that she could not enter a door
without turning sideways
but he thought that in the cold winter evenings
she would keep him warm.
The trouble with his wife
was that she was a strict person
who drove their slave girls
to polish everything,
she had driven him away
from his own fireplace
with a hard hitting elbow,
as she was scared
that the ash from his pipe
would fall on the beautiful yellow-wood floor.
At the trees high up against the saddle
where Devil’s peak joins Table Mountain,
van Hunks found a big rock
that was flat like a settee
and there nobody would bother him
as the Citizens thought
that only a lunatic
would climb the peaks of Table Mountain.
With a barrel of rum and a heap of tobacco
that he had carried along secretary
van Hunks was dreaming
with his pipe in his mouth
while he saw the shadow
of the mountain
creeping blue over the meadow
during the late afternoon.
The silence and rest, with the sliver coloured trees,
the small white houses stretched out beneath him,
the castle holding its ground,
was like balm to his soul
and his gaze went to the harbour
with the huge sailing ships
and the deep blue ocean.
On a bright summer day
when he was drawing pleasing on his pipe
and was taking one shot of rum after the next
an irritating sharp voice said:
“Good morning old chap,
what a lovely day we have got.”
Van Hunks turned his head
and saw a small fat man
dressed in a black frock-coat
with a black hat on his head
and an expensive walking-stick in his hand.
Van Hunks growled
“Who the hell are you
and what are you doing here?”
The man smiled and said:
Some people call me Nick,
but I have many other names
and at times I come up to catch some fresh air
and to smoke my pipe”
and he removed his hat from head
while he bowed over
and van Hunks
saw two small red horns
while Nick gestured into the direction
of Devil’s peak.
“I know that you are van Hunks
and I have your old companion
captain Roedolf van Boons
and all of his men with me,”
which hit van Hunks hard
as they were all dead.
“You have got to meet my wife,
she is a hell of a thing,” van Hunks said
while he watched
the small fat man carefully.
“I have heard about her,”
Nick said with laughter
and he took out a good iron pipe
while van Hunks gestured towards the tobacco.
Van Hunks removed a pair of dice from his pocket
of which the weight was so
that he always was winning and he asked:
“Do you want to play?”
“It will be great,” said the small man
“let us see your money”
while he placed a bag of gold on the rock.
Out of his pockets van Hunks took
a hodgepodge of golden franks, golden guilders,
golden sovereigns and golden rings.
“I did not expect us to play
and do not have a lot of money with me
but we will see who wins.
We will really see,” van Hunks said
while he stroked his pair of dice.
“Great stuff,
I can always give you credit on your soul,”
the devil answered smiling.
Just when the game started Satan said:
“Here’s Peter as well,”
and van Hunks looked up astounded.
“I have come to warn you,” Peter said
and van Hunks became angry and replied:
“Leave me alone.
I get enough warnings at home.”
“Peter, you will get nowhere with him.
Do you also want to play?”
The Small man asked.
“It will be really nice,” Peter answered
while he gazed upwards.
Van Hunks took some more tobacco out
and another pipe
before he did shake the dices in his hand
and threw them.
They smoked and played
and played and smoked and cleaned their pipes
and started to smoke again
while the game went on
and van Hunks smiled at himself.
With time the air got thicker
and still thicker
while they were clouding the mountain
with so much smoke
that the rock-rabbits, lizards
and snakes fled from their holes.
Suddenly it became dark
from all of the smoke
until Peter could not see the dice clearly
and he started to slap his wings slowly
to blow the smoke away
and the more they did play,
the more they did smoke
and the harder Peter was hitting his wings
until a strong breeze was blowing.
Beneath the mountain the citizens
decided to go home
to get in their hot beds
with their wives
as it was the strongest South Easter
that had blown in many years
and down in the bay
the colour of the water changed
from blue to green and later grey
and the waves was getting bigger
causing the ships to throw out some more anchors
and the captains to return from the bars
back to their heaving ships.
Up high on the saddle of the mountain
the game went on
and the more they played,
the more they did smoke
while the cloud got bigger
and kept growing.
Later van Hunks rose tiredly
and stretched out while he said:
“Friends, I have got all of your money
and a halo and a tail as surety,”
while both Nick and Peter
looked downhearted back at him.
“The old woman is waiting
and I will have to go
or she will knock me around out of anger,”
van Hunks said
before he took the twisting road down the mountain.
“It looks as if he has cheated us
but the games was really great,”
Peter said to Nick.
“Hey there van Hunks,” the devil called.
“We want to play again at another time,
as we are now friends?”
“Hallo,” van Hunks called back
certain that they want to find out
how he had won them
but van Hunks agreed to play again
in the summer on a sunny day
as he had trouble with rheumatism.
On the next occasion
each one bragged
that he could smoke
much more than the others
and the winner
would receive a ship full of gold
and after days of smoking
the old pirate
won both the devil and Peter
Thunder suddenly erupted from Devil’s peak
hitting just where van Hunks was standing
and he did disappear
and there was only a scorched place
where he had been
and on a summer day
when clouds cover Table Mountain,
the game of smoking
and gambling still continues.
Gert Strydom, 31 maja 2012
Buffelskraal
(after I. D. du Plessis)
At the Buffelkraal farmstead once lived a beautiful girl
near to the Matroosberg Mountain with a crown of golden hair
and when the first winter snow falls and covers the hills,
as the moon comes out glistening a scene is acted out.
White is the snow flaking down
and the moon is golden
when a gorgeous girl entices a boyfriend
and for moments they stand together
while moonbeams fall yellow
as she smiles as the loveliest girl in the universe;
white is the snow flaking down
while the moon is golden.
Just more than a hundred and forty years ago
the dreams of Francois came true like an answered prayer
when the loveliest girl in the district asked him for a flower
while she amazed him with a stolen kiss.
White is the snow flaking down
and silver-white is the moon
where a pretty girl entices a boyfriend
and he goes home with a song in his heart
when the moonbeams fall icy white
as she smiles as the prettiest girl in the universe;
white is the snow flaking down
and silver-white is the moon.
Blissful is the knowledge that she loves him
when he faces Groothoek cliff,
bravely he loads his blunderbuss
before he starts climbing the hill.
White is the snow flaking down
and bleak white the moon
where a pretty girl entices a boyfriend
to pick a disa flower and when he slips
falling down a rocky ledge to his death
she cries like the most raving girl in the universe;
white is the snow flaking down
and bleak white the moon.
Fleeting the snow flakes down
as on a night she walks in her nightdress,
escaping into the Hex River Mountains
and a ghostly tale begins.
Splashed with blood is the flaking snow
and dark is the moon
when the death of a boyfriend draws a girl to the hills
and as a rock shatters she falls down a cliff,
deep into a gorge
and another sweetheart dies in the universe,
splashed with blood is the flaking snow
and dark is the moon
At the Buffelkraal farmstead once lived the loveliest girl
near to the Matroosberg Mountain with a crown of golden hair
and when the first winter snow falls and covers the hills
as the moon comes out glistening a scene is acted out.
White is the snow flaking down
and the moon is golden
when crying a girl tries to entice her boyfriend
as she stands in a white nightdress on the cliffs
while moonbeams fall yellow
as she smiles as the loveliest girl in the universe;
white is the snow flaking down
while the moon is golden.
[References: “Rietfontein” by I. D. du Plessis, “The witch of Hex River” by Gert Strydom.]
Gert Strydom, 30 maja 2012
There are thousands that act both selfless and brave
There are thousands that act both selfless and brave,
some feel the planet’s agony as they love beyond death,
others labour for what is right and good in what they sense
but with great incompetence man lives his mortal life,
some look as visionaries at a world beyond mere sight,
others dwell in the wonders of human form and grace
and in all of this we dwell in the darkest kind of night,
while we live, laugh and cry as members of the human race
and yet there is loveliness in what we experience,
in what we see and act upon and feel at times
as we hope and love and are caught in passion,
as if mere man was destined for something much more.
Gert Strydom, 30 maja 2012
The farmer (cavatina)
(after Guy Butler)
On the sandstone veranda I saw him
withered, old,
the master of thousands of acres of veldt,
it was quite cold
that early morning and through seasons of rain, drought
he stood quite bold;
a world of summers, winters he did love,
from an earth of grey shale he could not move.
[Reference: “Farmer” by Guy Butler.]
Gert Strydom, 30 maja 2012
Interview with a Captain of industry (cavatina)
You can tell that power oozes out of him,
that this office
is a battleground of victorious meetings,
like a orifice
that issues blue-thunder his mouth opens;
a sacrifice
as a lamb to the slaughter I am led,
that some of the howling wolves can be fed.
Gert Strydom, 29 maja 2012
That our love must be lost (in answer to N. P. van Wyk Louw)
That our love must be lost,
at a time will have to end
that there is an end to all things,
is something that I find sorrowful and amazing
that no one can stop the coming of the night,
when sometimes I see your sunny glances
tags at my mind as I do know
that nothing, nobody can stop death
when at times I hold you tenderly
as if love can last eternally.
[Reference: “Dat alle liefde” (“That all love”) by N. P. van Wyk Louw.]
Gert Strydom, 29 maja 2012
When one soul was in both our thoughts
(After C. Louis Leipoldt)
When one soul was in both our thoughts,
we were together at the bright blue ocean,
where you joyously did swim,
gave me a passionate kiss, where we did embrace,
while only the same things inspired us both;
the heaven was a kind of cobalt blue,
together we did kneel, we did pray,
together we trusted on the power of God
while we were in love with each other.
[Reference: “Wys my die plek waar ons saam gestaan het” (“Show me the place where we stood together:”) by C. Louis Leipoldt.]
Gert Strydom, 29 maja 2012
There are dew drops in your eyes
There are dew drops in your eyes, their green,
that laughs with me that look past all of my masks
that does strange things to me
when your eyes do not waver before mine,
then your tears fall like rain between leaves,
when both joy and pain flow from them,
and I smell gardenias in your hair,
while you let me realize some secrets of love,
when you do tell you about your feelings.
Ostatnie komentarze:
11 października 2024
Belamonte/Senograsta
to ciekawe, to może piszesz programy dla szkół?
11 października 2024
Dziękuję, widzę że nie wiem co z tego co
11 października 2024
sam53
jesień tak ma... :)))
10 października 2024
violetta
Piękne kwiaty, chcę takie na balkon:)
10 października 2024
Jaga
Zawsze znienacka jesień życia...
10 października 2024
Groch przez wieki był rzucany/ dzisiaj ściana
10 października 2024
Georginie jesienne :)
10 października 2024
Tak :))
10 października 2024
:)
10 października 2024
Muchomor czerwony, trujący. Ponoć wzięty przez
10 października 2024
:))))
10 października 2024
Eva T.
Jadalny?
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Arsis
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sam53
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wiesiek
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Yaro
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Atanazy Pernat
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Atanazy Pernat
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Atanazy Pernat
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Atanazy Pernat
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Deadbat
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