13 November 2012

HAPPY!ness

HAPPY!ness 
© Farouk Asvat



                        "Happy Christmas, Anna."

'Hêppy Xmas, Mêrram
 (and you too
  my sweet husband
  living in bachelors' quarters
  and hêppiness too
  my children
  staying with the mother
  of their mother
  on the farm)
 Anything else, Mastah?'




© farouk asvat


original composed: 1985 [Johannesburg, South Africa under apartheid]




[] G'LUK!

                 Dutch translation by © Irene Scheltes


            "Gelukkig Kerstfeest, Anna."

'G'lukkige Kerst, M'vrouw
(en jij ook
 m'n lieve man
 in de vrijgezellenwijk
 en g'luk ook voor jullie
 m'n kinderen
 die bij de moeder
 van hun moeder zijn)
 Nog iets anders, Meest'r?'




[] Acknowledgements:

Happy!ness /Hêppy!ness was previously published in:

                A Celebration Of Flames (donker, p19, 1987);
                My Drum: southern african poetry for young people
                                ed B Meyerowitz, J Copans, T Welch
                                (Hippogriff / Abecedarius, Johannesburg, p21, 1988);
                G'luk: Dutch translation by Irene Scheltes (1989);
                Broken Strings: the politics of poetry in south africa
                                ed S Finn, R Gray (Maskew Miller Longman, Cape Town, p132, 1992);
                A Celebration Of Flames (piquant publications, p19, 2007).


 
____________________________________________________________
[]WIETIE WHAT-WHAT

Bra Frooks is ...
                                []  nes 'n skollie
                                []  'n egte skollie
                                []  'n tsotsi
                                []  a real scamp
                                []  streetwise
                                []  the jokerman

Bra Frooks ...
                                []  praat soos 'n skollie
                                []  wietie soos 'n joster
                                []  wietie what-what
                                []  tunes like a durbanite
                                []  speaks like an englishman




© 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 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 @:

faroukasvat-poems.blogspot.com/

faroukasvat-viewpoint.blogspot.com/

faroukasvat-lingo.blogspot.com/

piquantpublications.blogspot.com


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