In the early 1970s I chanced upon a small book of poems translated from Xhosa that has in the years since intrigued me with an implicit set of questions around self-expression in one’s mother tongue. The pamphlet was The Making of a Servant and Other Poems, translated by Robert Kavanagh and Z.S. Quangule, by the… Continue reading Xhosa poetry
Tag: poetry
The Red Wheelbarrow
By Reg Rumney Not much depends on the red wheelbarrow Not much today and little tomorrow. The red enamel’s glazed with water. So? The chickens, white or black, bestow No meaning on the scene, nothing profound. Two colours, two objects, things found In the yard, but who or when, why or what? Left out the… Continue reading The Red Wheelbarrow