The iconisation of physical deterioration with specific reference to Antjie Krog’s poetry volume Verweerskrif
Marthinus Beukes
Affiliation for the original publication: University of Johannesburg
‘die liggaam begin om afskeid te neem [the body begins taking its leave]’
(Krog, 2006a:82)
ABSTRACT
Krog struggles in the volume Body Bereft with the problem of the ageing body and with the perceived inability of language to describe such a process. She delineates the dilemma of getting older by means of the following question: “how and with what / does one gain the vocabulary of age?” (2006a:28). Since Krog not only redefines body identity through thematic presentation, but especially also through language presentation, specifically by means of the many instances of syntactic decay, it can be argued that language, specifically syntax, is a repository of identity for the ageing speaker. In this article the focus is on Krog’s writing of decay/ageing with reference to the syntactic presentation of texts and also the way in which ageing of the body is configured thematically.
Isingeniso
Umbhali u-Krog ucabanga kabanzi, embhalweni wakhe Body Bereft, ngomzimba osukhulile/ogugayo nokukhula kwawo. Ukujula komcabango kuzama ukuhlela izinkulumo ezithatha ngokuthi alukho ulimi noma amagama angakwazi ukuchaza indlela umzimba okhula ngayo noma oguga ngayo. Umbhali uyibeka kanje lempicabadala “ngabe umuntu uluthola kanjani ulimi lweminyaka esihambile?” (2006a:28). Njengoba u-Krog engazibekele umsebenzi wokuchaza kabusha umzimba ngokwenkulumo ehlelekile, singasho sithi ulimi, ikakhulu ngoko musho, luyinqolobane yobuntu yalowo ozuke ebhekene nokukhula/noguga. Kulolucwaningo ngibhekana nokubhala kuka-Krog lapho ekhuluma khona ngokuguga nokufadalala. Lokhu kusiza ngibheke indlela umzimba ogugayo ukuthi uhlelwe kanjani, ngokwenkulumo.
Translation note:
This article was originally published in Afrikaans in Stilet 23(1), March 2011. For ease of reference – in the pdf version of this piece, in which the Afrikaans and English of Krog’s poetry, as cited by Marthinus Beukes, are presented side to side – the page numbers of the original are indicated in the centre of the page – that is, “1” would indicate the end of the original’s page 1. Krog’s volume Verweerskrif was published as Body bereft (also in 2006). Where the arguments in the original Afrikaans of this article remain valid for the published English translations of Krog’s poems, quotes from those translations are used, placed between brackets alongside the Afrikaans. Where the published translation does not fit Beukes’s arguments, however, direct translations of the Afrikaans are used, recognizable through italics. These translations were done by the translator of the article, Menitza Botha.
Introduction
Two key concerns of Krog’s (2006a) poetry volume entitled Verweerskrif are the struggle with physical deterioration and the inability of language to describe this process. The problems associated with expressing the process of ageing are articulated by the question: “hoe en waarmee / verwerf ’n mens die woordeskat van ouderdom?” [how and with what / does one gain the vocabulary of age?] (Krog, 2006a:82). Krog redefines body identity not only with the thematic presentation of the volume but especially with the linguistic presentation, specifically by employing numerous syntactic ‘verwerings’ [instances of decay]. It can therefore be argued that language, and syntax in particular, is a conduit of the ageing speaker’s identity. Krog has previously used language as an instrument to express her body’s deterioration in the volumes Otters in bronslaai (1981) and Jerusalemgangers (1985). In the former, the signs of age are presented by means of ‘kombuismetafore’ [kitchen metaphors].
In the poem “besoek aan die spesialis” [trip to the specialist] (Krog, 1985:35), the marks of age visible on the body are described with words such as “verlies” [loss] and “rinnewasie” [ruin]. In this poem, possession and abandonment of bodily functions and body parts are described with these two words, which causes the reader to experience the cry of “niks is meer eienares¹ s’n” [nothing belongs to owner any more]. Van Zyl’s (2009:111) remark about Krog’s stylistic ability can be extended to the deliberate way in which she uses language as an instrument: “Krog se gedigte is […] gekenmerk deur uiteenlopende versvorme, styl- en taalvariasie. Krog ontgin in verskillende kontekste ‘n breë woordeskat met betrekking tot emosie wat stilisties wissel van kru taal, vloekwoorde, die banale en selfs die skatologiese …” [Krog’s poems are […] characterised by varied poetic structures as well as stylistic and linguistic variation. In various contexts, Krog can draw from her extensive vocabulary of emotion, which is stylistically varied from foul language, swear words, the banal and even the scatological …]
Gouws (1988:258) mentions that in an earlier interpretation of Krog’s language use in Jerusalemgangers in 1985, reviewers were in agreement about the “moeilikheidsgraad van die poësie, en dit deur die bank gekoppel aan die ‘rinnewasie’ van taal [the level of difficulty of the poetry, and all reviewers connected it to the ‘ruin’ of language]” (Cloete, 1986:10). This is in addition to the violation (Brink, 1986:16), distortion (Nienaber-Luitingh, 1986:6) and deformity (Olivier, 1986:15) of the language in the volume.
In this article, I will focus on Krog’s skrif van verwering [writing/script of decay] with the syntactic presentation in a few poems in her oeuvre as point of departure, as well as the way in which physical decay manifests itself as the theme. Since iconisation through syntax is one of the most prominent methods that Krog uses in this volume, I will briefly explain what it entails.
Metaphoric iconicity
Krog’s actualises the metaphor verweer is (soos) skrif [decay is (like) writing/script] through linguistic structures such as syntax. The arguments that the reviewers make about the application of language in Jerusalemgangers with regard to ‘rinnewasie’ [ruin], ‘verwringing’ [distortion] and ‘misvorming’ [deformity] (compare Cloete, Olivier and Gouws’s arguments above) also apply to the process of syntactic iconisation of some of the poems in Verweerskrif. Müller (2010:247) remarks that “(i)n poetry […] peculiarities of linguistic form are generally relevant to the meaning of a text […] Poetical language […] is by definition iconic”. This observation holds true for Krog’s language use – Krog’s problematisation of the syntax of poems through unusual conclusions or instances of incompleteness are the peculiarities that Müller mentions. In this way, Krog communicates a specific message to the reader: the description of physical deterioration that cannot be conveyed through language.
Wybenga and Cloete (1992:179) define iconicity in poetry as the equivalence between the sign and the object to which it refers. Here, the manifestation of the poem’s content through its structure emphasises the poem’s meaning. The following explanation by Du Plooy (2008:72) – based on Wybenga and Cloete (1992:179) – is suited to my application of (especially) metaphoric iconicity and its manifestation in physical and textual deterioration:
Daar word na metaforiese ikonisiteit verwys wanneer daar ’n parallellistiese verhouding tussen die
gedig of deel van ’n gedig en ’n referent tot stand gebring word en wanneer die gelykenis nie tussen die teken en die referent as sodanig voorkom nie, maar tussen twee referente wat metaforeies deur dieselfde
teken aangedui, gedenoteer of geaktiveer word.[When a parallelistic relationship between the poem or part of the poem and a referent is established and when equivalence is not present between the sign and the referent as such, but between the two referents that are metaphorically indicated, denoted or activated by the same sign, we can speak of metaphoric iconicity.]
Müller (2010:248) remarks that “The arrangement of words in verses contributes to creating poeticality and iconicity”; a succinct definition of the syntactic presentation of poetic texts. His statement echoes that of Wybenga and Cloete (1992:180), who maintain that “die sin […] ook beskou word as metaforiese ikoon” [the sentence […] is also considered a metaphoric icon]. Krog’s use of syntax to convert the visual presentation of the sentence into a vehicle of meaning is a type of iconisation. In a broader sense, the way in which the sentence is applied to a line/s can also be thought of as conveying meaning. This article will focus on a small number of Krog’s poems in which the syntax has important semantic value.
(Dis)integrating entities: body and poem
The title of the poem “hoe sê mens dit” [“how do you say this”] (Krog, 2006a:28; -b:28) foregrounds the semantic value of words, specifically the spoken word as opposed to the written word. Accordingly, two aspects related to the speaker’s inability to articulate the ageing process can be distinguished: on the one hand there is the impaired denominative ability of spoken language, and on the other the failure of written language to convey the poet’s view. The exposition below indicates the striking number of lines that refer to the impotence of the speaker’s linguistic ability to describe physical deterioration.
| titel | hoe sê mens dit |
| 1-3 | ek weet werklik nie hoe om dit te sê nie |
| jou deurwinterde kortgeknipte baard is dalk | |
| te ná, te téén my vir taal, te grys van grint | |
| 4 | ek weet werklik nie hoe om jou ouerwordende lyf te sê |
| 6 | ek weet nie waarom die woord ‘plooie’ so banaal klink nie |
| 7 | ek weet nie hoe ouerword moet klink in taal nie |
| 21 | ek dink ek probeer sê |
| 24 | ek dink ek probeer |
| 35-37 | hoe verset mens |
| jou teen die gemaklike uitweg wat oudword bloot | |
| tot metafoor van die dood verstom? | |
| 37-38 | hoe en waarmee |
| verwerf ’n mens die woordeskat van ouderdom? |
| title | how do you say this |
| 1-3 | I truly don’t know how to say this |
| your seasoned neatly clipped beard is perhaps | |
| too here, too close for language, too grey with grit | |
| 4 | I really don’t know how to write your ageing body |
| 6 | I don’t know why the word ‘wrinkle’ sounds so banal |
| 7 | I simply do not know how ageing should sound in language |
| 21
21[22] |
I think I’m
trying to say |
| 24[25] | I think I’m trying to say |
| 35-37 | how do you resist |
| the easy escape that mutes ageing to a mere | |
| metaphor of death? | |
| 37-38 | how and with what |
| do you gain the vocabulary of age? |
The final lines of the poem confirm the view that the semantic content of language is insufficient to express the problematic nature of age and ageing:
hoe verset mens
jou teen die gemaklike uitweg wat oudword bloot
tot metafoor van die dood verstom? hoe en waarmee
verwerf ’n mens die woordeskat van ouderdom?
/
how do you resist
the easy escape that mutes ageing to a mere
metaphor of death? how and with what
do you gain the vocabulary of age?
With the repeated syntactic phrase “hoe en waarmee / verwerf ’n mens die woordeskat van ouderdom?” [how and with what / do you gain the vocabulary of age?] Krog points to the meaning of the poem’s content by expressing deterioration through the stylistic presentation of the text’s structure. This stylistic presentation is especially relevant for the way she uses syntax and various poetic forms to express decay, which then becomes the manifestation of the ‘skrif [writing/script]’ of physical deterioration. In essence, syntactic decay is the way in which the form of the poem and its linguistic elements emphasises the speaker’s message.
The metaphor inherent in the title of Krog’s volume is the following: “die liggaam is verweerskrif” [the body is deteriorating in writing]. In the context of the volume, a poem is a body that deteriorates, or the body is a poem that deteriorates. Elements of meaning of “skrif” [writing] are conferred to “verweer” [deteriorate] because “verweer is soos skrif” [deterioration is like writing]. In this construction, writing is the manifestation of the body’s disntegration. Krog’s use of grammatical means, especially syntax, becomes “verwring” [distorted] or “verweer” [deteriorated] in order to function as a metaphor that iconically describes the body’s degradation.
The deterioration of the speaker’s body is already expressed in Otters in bronslaai (Krog, 1981:37) in the poem “familieresep?” [“family recipe?”]:
ek kyk af na my platgevalle borste, my klonterige maag
die uitgesakte houtlepel van my heupe
my biltongbruin kuite
/
I look down on my deflated breasts, my lumpy stomach
the sagging, wooden-spoon hips
my biltong-brown calves
In the same volume, the ageing body is depicted through kitchen metaphors in the poem “hoe en waarmee oorleef mens dit?” [how and with what do you survive it?] (Krog, 1981:39):
ek illustreer ’n kombuis
met hare vaalgeklits teen die stroewe novilon van vel
die taai melkkoepons van rug buig belangeloos
onder ’n vadoekvaal kamerjas
die bene soos blouseep fyn beaar
pantoffels soos potskuurders om voete
ek is dikbek soos ’n meelsak
afgechip soos ’n melkbeker
my hande ouer en droër as gisteroggend se toast
/
I paint a kitchen
with dabs of drab hair against the dour novilon of skin
sticky milk coupons of back bending blasé
under the wan washrag of a dressing gown
the legs finely veined like mottled soap
slippers like scourers around feet
I’m pouting like a bag of flour
chipped like a milk jug
my hands older and drier than yesterday morning’s toast
A self-conscious observation of the speaker’s body is present in the poem “selfportret” [selfportrait] (Krog, 1981:47). It is congruent with the deterioration that, twenty-five years later, is the central concern of Verweerskrif. Physical deterioration is used to paint a self-portrait in this eponymous poem of six stanzas. The three stanzas of nine lines each are divided by an isolated line in which the speaker’s neck and throat are presented in a diagrammatically iconic² manner.
selfportret
na soveel maande kom ek sit om ’n gedig te skryf
soos ’n leë maag rammel leë wolke agter die fyn reën
die blaai onder my hand is lynloos
die potlood skerp en vars
valslik probeer ek in ’n swoon ingaan
een of ander esoteriese beeld vasgryp
– vroeër was ek so goed daarmee –
maar elke beeld staan sonder dimensie
van ewigheid, kosmos en dít wat groot poësie sou maak
drop dit, ek strek my arms, krap my nek en
vang myself in die spieël, die gesig is byna dertig
in borduursteke lê fyn plooitjies om my oë
en ritsel deur die reliëf van wangbene en slape
sagte deegblasies rys onder my oë
soos ’n vetkoektang sper die kepe van die neus af mond toe
waar ek wil lag oor my sagte lippe nog
my tong wat soos ’n pienk akkedissie aan saadtrosse kan hang
my stem wat ekstase so goed kan na-hyg agter sterk wit emalje
totdat ek die nek sien:
die bruin suede-handskoen om my keel
wat die spieël met die reëngedempte lig nié sê nie:
is dat sy smôrens skilfers op haar wenkbroue kry
hare uit haar neus moet knip
haar snor moet afhaal met room op die kruissteek bo-lip
onderkant die versteende swartkoppie op haar neus
die witkoppies op haar ken
dat haar tong agter aangepak en swart gebars is van rook en wyn
dat haar kiestande vaal gestop is
haar kliere al hoe strammer poësie uitknars
en dat sy snags al hoe asmatieser snork deur haar strot.
/
after all these months I sit down to write a poem
like an empty stomach empty clouds rumble behind the fine rain
the page under my hand is unlined
the pencil sharp and fresh
spuriously I try to enter a swoon
grab hold of some or other esoteric image
– I used to be so good at this –
but every image is without dimension
of eternity, cosmos and that which would make great poetry
drop it, I stretch my arms, scratch my neck and
catch myself in the mirror, the face is nearly thirty
fine wrinkles lie embroidered around my eyes
and quiver through the relief of cheekbones and temples
soft dough bubbles rise under my eyes
like a pair of vetkoek tongs the nose slits splay down to the mouth
where I want to laugh about my soft lips still
my tongue that can like a little pink lizard hang on seed clusters
my voice that can imitate intimate ecstasy behind strong white enamel until I see the neck:
the brown suede glove around my throat
what the mirror doesn’t say in rain-dulled light:
she finds dandruff in her eyebrows in the mornings
has to cut hair from her nose
remove her moustache with cream on the cross-stich of an upper lip
beneath the ossified blackhead on her nose
the whiteheads on her chin
that her tongue is furred and black from wine and smoke
that her molars are fallow with fillings
and her glands stiffly, stiffly gnashing out poetry
every night she’s snoring even more asthmatically through her gullet.
In the poem above, the speaker’s self-portrait is painted with words and is stripped of aesthetic display. She attempts to overcome the physical deterioration by means of the poem’s set pattern. The physical deterioration is “in takt gehou” [kept in tact] by the poem’s structure. In Jerusalemgangers (Krog, 1985:35) the poet speaks of “rinnewasie” [ruin] to express physical deterioration, but attempts to effect a conservation of form against the decay by using tercet stanzas.
In Verweerskrif, the speaker’s relationship with her husband and children determines her identity, and language is occasionally insufficient to express both the deteriorating body and her interaction with her family. Language, and more specifically syntax, is employed in “sonnet van die warm gloede” [“sonnet of the hot flushes”] (p. 16[17]) as well as “God, Die Dood” [“God, Death, Love”] (p. 20) to give a name to the struggle of ageing. In the three marriage songs, the husband’s physical deterioration is expressed in conjunction with that of the speaker specifically within the context of marriage. The poems “vertrekkende” [“short visit”] (p. 15[16]), “depressie 1” [“depression 1”] (p. 40[49]) and “depressie 2” [“depression 2”] (p. 41[50]) express the speaker’s relationship with her children, especially through syntactic decay.
The ambivalent ability of language
Krog’s struggle to translate the ageing process is also characterised by conservation. When the speaker declares “met geliefde tale wil ek jou oproep / en volbrag” [“in loved languages I want to call you forth”] in “ode vir ’n ander lewe” [“ode for another life”] (p. 38[47]) it is an attempt to conserve something through language. This expression of desire stresses the dissatisfaction with the ambivalent power of language. It is exactly Krog’s touching desire to preserve her lover and children through language that makes this poem compelling. An additional layer of conservation is established through the poem’s form (an ode). The conventional pattern of the poem’s structure enables Krog to create lyrical or harmonious uniformity. The similarity of meaning between the ode as a poetic form is situated in the lyrical elements. According to Webster’s Dictionary (1986:1564), the ode is “a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular metre”, or “a historical poem meant to be sung”. The suitability of this poetic form stems from its disparate nature, which corresponds with the poem’s content. As a lyrical poem with an elevated subject and content, this type of form conveys the poem’s message effectively. The constant syntactic refrain of “ek wil” +
“ ’n ander” [“I want (to)” + “another”] emphasises the speaker’s discontent with her ageing body. The apex of her desire³ culminates in the “l’envoi”. She expresses the following wish (p. 39[48]), but is curtailed by her body’s imperfections:
ek wil ’n ander lewe hê
waarin ek onbevange aanraak
en onverganklik omgee
ek’s moeg vir my tekortskietende hande
my papende brein en snedige tong wil ek nie meer hê nie
ek’s moeg geskuif van:
hoe bly jy jonk na hoe bly jy lewendig
van hoe bly jy lewendig na hoe het jy lief
van hoe het jy lief na hoe het jy ten goede lief
ek is sat om ’n leeftyd lank
‘n ander lewe te moet hê
/
I want another life
in which I can touch unhampered
and love imperishably
I am tired of the deficit in my hands
my pauperising brain and tongue I no longer want
I am tired of shifting:
from how to stay young to how to stay alive
from how to stay alive to how to love
from how to love to how to love to the good
I am tired of this lifelong wanting
the needing of another life
In light of the argument above, the poem “hoe sê mens dit?” [“how do you say this?”] (p. 28-29) can be read as the spoken word’s ineptitude at constructing age. This inability to allow ageing “te laat klink in taal” [“to sound in language”] in this 38-line poem can be summarised as follows:
hoe sê mens dit
| 1 | ek weet werklik nie hoe om dit te sê nie |
| 4 | ek weet werklik nie hoe om jou ouerwordende lyf te sê nie |
| 5 | sonder die woorde ‘verlies’ of ‘fataal’ nie |
| 6 | ek weet nie waarom die woord ‘plooie’ so banaal klink nie |
| 7 | ek weet nie hoe ouerword moet klink in taal nie |
| 21 | ek dink ek probeer sê |
| 22 | dat ek jou verdikte buik sexy vind |
| 23 | dat ’n ereksie teen die effenste ronding |
| 24 | my nat in die mond laat ek dink ek |
| 25 | probeer sê dat ek my vir die eerste keer |
| kan oorgee aan jou dye vanweë hulle week | |
| witheid … | |
| 35 | hoe verset |
| 36 | mens jou teen die gemaklike uitweg wat oudword bloot |
| 37 | tot metafoor van die dood verstom? hoe en waarmee |
| 38 | verwerf ’n mens die woordeskat van ouderdom? |
/
how do you say this
| 1 | I truly don’t know how to say this |
| 4 | I really don’t know how to write your ageing body |
| 5 | without using words like ‘loss’ or ‘fatal’. I don’t know. |
| 6 | I don’t know why the word ‘wrinkle’ sounds so banal |
| 7 | I simply do not know how ageing should sound in language |
| 21
[22] |
I think I’m
trying to say |
| 22 | that I find the thickening of your |
| 23 | abdomen attractive, that an erection against a |
| 24 | slight curve leaves one wet in the mouth. god, |
| 25 | I think I’m trying to say that I can surrender to
your thighs for the very first time because of their soaking whiteness |
| 35 | how do you resist |
| 36 | the easy escape that mutes ageing to a mere |
| 37 | metaphor of death? how and with what |
| 38 | do you gain the vocabulary of age |
There are numerous lines in which the speaker uses negation to express her inability to represent physical deterioration and it is especially noticeable in lines 1-7: “ek weet werklik nie” / “ek weet nie” [“I truly don’t know” / “I simpy do not know”]. Lines 21-25 contain two declarative clauses in which the inability of the speaker can be heard in the helpless attempt to express the ageing of the body: “ek dink ek probeer sê” [“I think I’m trying to say”]. The interrogative clause “hoe en waarmee / verwerf ’n mens die woordeskat van ouderdom?” [how and with what / do you gain the vocabulary of age?] at the end of the poem can be considered a synthesis of the speaker’s dilemma to find words for her deteriorating body.
The speaker and children
The poems in which Krog’s linguistic inability to express the pain and loss of a departing child are “vertrekkende” [“short visit”] (p. 15), “depressie 1” [“depression 1”] (p. 40[49]) and “depressie 2” [“depression 2”] (p. 41[50]). In the two poems about the depression of the speaker’s child, the syntactic presentation is diverse, stressing the speaker’s emotional powerlessness to help her child.
As with the poem “hoe sê mens dit? [how do you say this]”, Krog is powerless to verbally express loss in the poem “vertrekkende” [“short visit”] (p. 15). Besides the disintegrating syntax, the most noticeable impediment preventing the speaker from writing about loss is spoken language. The speaker claims that “na elke vertrek beraam ek taal […] om wat ons bind verbaal te uiter” [after every departure I plot language to utter verbally what binds us] [“after every visit I devise […] I utter what binds us”]. It is ironic that the power of the sure-fire punch is expressed as follows:
“die ongesêde bloedbelope desperaat gemikte vuishou. of dit die smoel voluit tref” [“the unsaid bloodshot desperate fistblow. whether it had hit the snout. full out”]. What is distinctive in this case is that the punch ‘tref die smoel’ [hits the maw], thus complicating the verbalisation of the pain caused by the child’s departure. The punch is on the mouth, which complicates the verbalisation of the pain. The placement of the full stop after “vuishou” [“fistblow”] emphasises the action even further – the full stop iconically functions as the punch.
Krog also uses the syntax iconically in the poems “depressie 1” [“depression 1”] (p. 40[49]) and “depressie 2” [“depression 2”] (p. 41[50]). In these two poems, the diverse syntactic presentation comes to the fore. In “depressie 1”, the converging syntax becomes iconic of the child’s pining. The marked repetition of the phrase “dis asof” [“it’s as if”] effectively represents the spatial disparity between loving parent and child as the child drifts away from the speaker. The mother’s rescue attempt is hampered as the child drifts further away into the clutches of depression.
Etymologically, the term “syntax” comes from the Greek term suntaxis (Webster’s Dictionary, 1986:2321), which signifies the arrangement of words and clauses for optimal meaning. The writing in these two poems is applied to embody the depression sufferer’s condition iconically by subverting syntactic conventions through poetic language use in order to ensure that the meaning reaches a climax. In these two poems, the deteriorating writing indicates the denormalisation of the order of the clauses that refer to the child’s condition:
depressie
1.
dis asof jy al hoe meer binne-in
jou oë wegraak asof jou voorkop al
donkerder jou wange al hoe
beweegloser jou mond verder word
as wat enige iets nog ooit van my
was jou lyf so deursigtig asof my
hand deur jou steek as ek probeer
keer dat jy verdwyn jy beweeg
tussen ons maar het kontak
verbreek aan jou hande kan ek
sien hoe verbete jy soms nog vashou
die naels in jou vingers raak
uitgewis dis asof ek langs ’n
oewer hardloop en reddingsboeie
uitgooi en toue en takke en buite
myself skreeu dat jy moet
uithou en vashou dat ek jou sal
uitswem dat ek my in jou
plek sal gee dat ek die Here God self
uit die hemel sal pluk dat ek alles
alles sal prysgee om jou veilig
te bring in jou oë terug
depression
1.
it’s as if you are disappearing more
and more within your eyes
as if your forehead
grows darker your cheeks
more motionless your mouth
further than anything
has ever been from me your
body so transparent that my
hand goes right through you
if I try to prevent you from
disappearing you move among us
but have broken all contact from your
hands I can see at times how fiercely
you hold on the nails in your fingers
become erased it is as if I run down
a riverbank throwing life-buoys and
ropes and branches I am beside
myself I yell that you should hang
on hang in there I will salvage
you I will give myself in your
place I will rip God Almighty
Himself from heaven I’ll give
anything to bring you back
safely into your eyes
The run-on sentences evoke the way in which the addressee is carried away by depression (metaphorically depicted as water). Depression is a tide⁴ that carries the child away from the speaker, and the subversion of conventional syntactic order is a vehicle for conveying the child’s depression. The reader is forced to break down the converging syntax into understandable units and to add caesuras where needed.
The second poem in this diptych has a completely different syntactic presentation. The six repetitions of the phrase “dis vreeslik om” [“it’s terrible to”] as well as the incomplete syntactic presentation stress the impotence and emotional pain that the powerless mother experiences as a result of being unable to help her child, with the implication that the syntax becomes an instrument to visually illustrate this helplessness.
2.
dis vreeslik om jou so te sien.
hoe kry ek jou. dis vreeslik om.
hoe kry ek jou terug. kon dit dalk.
as ek maar. had ek liewer.
dis vreeslik om. kyk hier staan ek.
ek skeur. ek probeer skeur.
hoe kry ek my liefde. hoe kry ek
my liefde uit ontoereikendheid.
derms en al. dis vreeslik om. hoe
kry ek jou. hoe vrygeskeur.
hoe voer ek in jou in. hoe kom ek tot jou.
ek moet jou. deurstroom van soveel
ligte lieflikheid dat jou ribbes.
dat jy daarvan moet straal.
dat jy genade aan jou bo-arms.
ag God, my kind wees sag.
wees by jouself. jy’s jonk. jy’s mooi.
jy beur verlore. ’n aarde wat.
die Here weet. ’n aarde wat jou
’n lewe lank. jou uiteindelik
net liefhet. hoe kry ek jou.
dis vreeslik om. dis vreeslik te sien.
jou so te sien.
/
it’s terrible seeing you like this.
how do I get you. it’s terrible to.
how do I get you back. maybe it could.
if I’d only. had I rather.
it’s terrible to. look I’m standing here.
I tear. I try to tear.
how do I wrest my love. how do I wrest
my love from inadequacy.
guts and all. its terrible to. how
do I get you. torn free.
how do I feed into you. how do I get to you.
I must suffuse. you with so much
light loveliness that your ribs.
that you should radiate it.
that mercy in your upper arms you.
oh God, my child be gentle.
be with yourself. you’re pretty. you’re young.
lost, you heave. a world that.
God knows. a world that
a lifetime. that finally
only loves you. how do I get you.
it’s terrible to. it’s terrible to see.
seeing you like this.
The incomplete or elliptical infinitive clauses that occur repeatedly⁵ emphasise the depression’s powerful effect on both the child and the speaker who watches helplessly as the current carries her child away. The entanglement of the fragmented and decayed syntax is iconic of depression’s immitigable effect on the child. The clause “hoe vrygeskeur” [“torn free”] highlights the stranglehold of both the child’s psychiatric disorder and the emotional state of the powerless mother. The phrases that express emotion are placed at the beginning of the line. Only the first infinitive construction is incomplete, but the “so” that is referred to is not qualified. The broken sentences foreground the child’s emotional deterioration as a result of depression, but more specifically it is a technique to depict the speaker’s feeling of powerlessness; in lines 1 to 12 this powerlessness is expressed by incomplete sentences.
As the child gradually pines away because of depression, the sentences decay and disintegrate. The pattern of repetition of the infinitive clause reaches the height of its fragmentation at the end of the poem, as if the child is slipping further and further away from the rescuing hands of the speaker:
dis vreeslik om jou so te sien.
dis vreeslik om.
dis vreeslik om
dis vreeslik om. dis vreeslik te sien.
jou so te sien.
/
it’s terrible seeing you like this.
it’s terrible to.
it’s terrible to.
it’s terrible to. it’s terrible to see.
seeing you like this.
Like in “depressie 2” (p. 41), the sentences in the poem “vertrekkende” [“short visit”] (p. 15[16]) are also incomplete. The accumulation of the staccato, decayed and broken sentences lends a trudging rhythm to the lines.
Müller (2010:353) describes this version of syntactic iconicity as a meaning shift because the weight has now been placed on other words in the line:
vertrekkende
’n kind vertrek. ek bly staan. bekende
oë groet voordat die donkerbril.
hande wat die sitplekgordel soek.
die straat verlate. ek waai waai. dis of
alle lig taan, of alles killer wil. of my hart
die blaam weier. alles wat gesê moes
word. na elke vertrek beraam ek taal.
om te verduidelik. hoe om volgende keer.
die gevoel van skroei deur my ribbes. ek
onderneem om maniere te vind. om wat
ons bind verbaal te uiter. so min is dit
wat jy wil hoor: die ongesêde bloedbelope
desperaat gemikte vuishou. of dit die smoel
voluit tref. jissis! ek bloei, kind.
/
the child is leaving. I’m left standing.
well-known eyes meet before the sunglasses.
hands grapple while the safety belt.
the street desolate. I wave, wave. as
all light pales. as everything aspires
bleaker. as the heart refuses.
everything that should have been said.
after every visit I devise.
next time to explain the scorching.
I undertake ways.
I utter what binds us. you want to
hear so little. the unsaid blootshot desperate
fistblow. whether it had hit the snout.
full out. jesus! I am bleeding, child
Krog’s use of the Italian sonnet could possibly be an attempt to conserve (by means of a conventional poetic form) the loss experienced as a result of the child’s departure. Unlike the blank verse of the depression poems used as an instrument for describing how the child drifts away from the mother, the choice to tell of the child’s departure in the form of a sonnet is calculated.
Like the departure, the speaker’s physical deterioration is also realised through the form of a sonnet in the poems that will be discussed subsequently.
Poetry as physical deterioration
In the following poems, the speaker’s attempt to express ageing and her disintegrating body is done without making an overt reference to the inadequacy of language. The physical disintegration is conserved with a sonnet, as if the body’s deterioration is actually obscured by the poem’s form.
sonnet van die warm gloede
iets kram jou rugmurg êrens vas jy voel.
hoe sprei ’n pasgestigte brand sy angs vanuit.
’n kern en jou are loop met vuur jou vleis.
ontvlam jou hart hou vuurvas haar balans.
jou beendere bak buite hulleself jou gesig.
verseng jou wange prut onthutsend voort en.
telkemale breek jy weg uit sissende omhulsels.
sweet jou vel vonk in ligte laaie weg.
maar op ’n dag skuif jy in jou stoel – en voel
die smeltkroes kole wat jou laaste
sappigheid verwoes. die fok weet dis genoeg:
brandend soos ’n kryger staan jy op – ’n boeg
van vuur – aan sy strot pak jy die dood en ploeg
sy neus deur jou kaalgeplukte drooggebakte poes
/
sonnet of the hot flushes
something staples your marrow somewhere
you feel a newly floated fire spreading angst from
a kernel and how your veins run with fire how
your flesh flames your heart keeps her fireproof
balance your bones bake besides themselves your
face singes your cheeks simmer in dismay and
time and again you break out in sizzling encasings
of sweat you smell your skin sparking off a blaze.
But one day you shift in your chair – and
feel this enormous crucible destroying your
last juiciness. God knows, this is enough:
burning like a warrior you rise – a figurehead of
fire – you grab death like a runt and plough its nose
right through your fleeced and drybaked cunt
Viljoen (2009:199) rightly asserts that the autobiographic nature of Krog’s poetry mostly follows the course of her life and in so doing brings different stages of female physicality under discussion, namely adolescence, virginity, menstruation, sexuality, conception, pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, motherhood, menopause⁶, and ageing. Krog’s expression of the theme of menopause through a sonnet is relevant. Deterioration as decay is not only embodied by the physical body of the speaker but also in the form of the sonnet. When Viljoen (2009:212) refers to the graphic description of the ageing body, it also applies to the way the sonnet’s form reifies physical deterioration.
The syntax of this sonnet is used as a conduit to illustrate the effect of menopause on the speaker. This Italian sonnet is, unusually, written with no delineated quatrains and tercets in the octave and sextet, with the result that the reader is confronted with a problematised syntactic presentation in the two parts of the poem. The syntax of the octave is broken, halting, incomplete and disrupted. After every line there is a full stop [only in the Afrikaans] without any trace of a completed syntactic unit with complete semantic content. Where enjambment could have completed the line, Krog has inserted unmotivated caesuras. The iconisation achieved by this foregrounds the disruption that the speaker experiences as a result of menopause.
It is only in the first line that there is no direct reference to hot flushes, but the line begins with the unqualified pronoun “iets” [“something”]. From the second line it is clear that the speaker is referring to the effect of menopause. In the subsequent lines, the accumulation of the words that stress hot flushes seems almost excessive:
| octave | |
| 2 | sprei ’n brand [fire spreading] |
| 3 | vuur [kernel] |
| 4 | ontvlam / vuurvas [flames / fireproof] |
| 5 | bak [bake] |
| 6 | verseng / prut [singer / simmer] |
| 7 | sissende [sizzling] |
| 8 | sweet / vonk / ligte laaie [sweat / sparking / blaze] |
| sextet | |
| 10 | smeltkroes kole [enormous crucible] |
| 12 | brandend [burning] |
| 13 | vuur [fire] |
| 14 | (and then the final effect of menopause) |
| kaalgeplukte drooggebakte poes⁷ [fleeced and drybaked cunt] |
In the same cycle of sonnets, the poem “God, Die Dood”⁸ [“God, Death, Love”] (p. 20) is a continuation of the theme of menopause and the speaker’s struggle with ageing.
God, Die Dood
God, Die Dood, Liefde, Eensaamheid, Die Mens
is Belangrike Temas
menstruasie, geboorte, menopouse, puberteit
die huwelik – nie
tog lê die verskrikking juis in
hoe leef jy met die disintegrerende lyf saam
hoe aanvaar jy dat die liggaam sig
nie meer kan intensifiseer tot ’n verruklike knal nie
hoe bemin jy die al-hoe-meer-blussendes
hoe berus jy in vaginale atrofie en inkontinensie
of dat die lem wat nou deur jou hart klief
waarskynlik ’n hartaanval is
om van die ouerwordende lyf na Die Dood
te spring, word al hoe meer ’n cop-out ding
/
God, Death, Love
God, Death, Love, Loneliness, Man
are Important Themes in Literature
menstruation, childbirth, menopause, puberty
marriage are not
meanwhile terror lies exactly in how
one lives with the disintegrating body
in how one accepts that the body no longer
wants to intensify with exhilarating detonations
in how one loves the more-and-more-slaked-ones
in how one resigns to vaginal atrophy and incontinence
or that the blade cleaving through one’s heart
is probably a heart attack
to jump from the ageing body to Death
has suddenly become a cop-out act
The phrases “vaginale atrofie” [“vaginal atrophy”], “inkontinensie” [“incontinence”], “hartaanval” [“heart attack”] and “ouer-wordende” [“ageing”] summarise the speaker’s struggle to express the deterioration of the body. The speaker’s body is characterised by two participles: “disintegrerende” [“disintegrating”] and “ouerwordende” [“ageing”].
However, it is the meaning of “disintegrerende” [“disintegrating”] that underscores the pain of the speaker’s inability to understand ageing. According to Webster’s Dictionary (1986:650), disintegration is defined as follows: “break up into small parts, typically as the result of impact or decay; weaken or break apart” and “deteriorate mentally or physically”. This definition makes it clear that the theme of disintegration is the most prominent in the poem and that the speaker’s ageing body is subject to rapid deterioration. This painful disintegration is further addressed in the poem about the speaker’s stroke. In “sagsif van die uurglas” [“softsift of the hourglass”] (p. 42[51-52]), the poem’s structure is used iconically to represent the consequences of the stroke. The typographic divides in the poem’s structure gives a graphic depiction of the speaker’s stroke. The two halves of the body now living past each other are illustrated by the form of the poem:
die helfte van haarself is iemand
anders asof iemand anders
langs haar, in haar staan soos
die brugkant van ’n neus …
/
half of her is somebody else
as if somebody else
is standing next to her in her like
the bridge of a nose …
The left and right sides of the body that no longer meet after the stroke are embodied by the typographic separation. In this regard one can refer to Viljoen (2009:192), who explains that Krog’s poetry is characterised by physical concreteness. This remark also applies to the process of iconisation that occurs in the poems concerning physical deterioration, with the ageing body visible in their form.
Conclusion
For Krog, language and textual deterioration are concurrent with her physical deterioration. The aged and ageing body is expressed through broken and incomplete syntactic formulations. Krog iconises linguistic and formal disintegration and applies it in order to express her experience of physical deterioration.
Notes
- Ruin can also be observed in the elision of the definite article.
- The three isolated stanzas are iconic of the speaker’s neck. As Ljungberg (2010:49-50) argues: “The diagrammatic character of the literary work is even inscribed already in the way sentences are structured on the page as spatial diagrams or as projected possibilities.”
- It is ironic that the ode, as an elevated song, falls short of reconstructing the ruined physical identity.
- Both the mother’s captivation and emotional inability to save her child from the maelstrom of the disease is expressed by means of this syntactic style.
- In this regard, Müller’s (2010:348) discussion of syntactic repetition is useful: “repetition – of whatever form – has an emphasising or intensifying and thus an iconic function. A plus in expression entails a plus in meaning.”
- Viljoen (2009:210-212) provides an in-depth discussion of the menopause in “sonnet van die warm gloede” [“sonnet of the hot flushes”] as well as “as vas los is” [“when tight is loose”] by referring to the “elemente van die groteske realisme” [elements of grotesque realism].
- In Lijfkreet (Krog 2006c:25), the Dutch translation of Verweerskrif, the Afrikaans rephrasing of these lines is different, but with an important focus on the [k] plosive to denote the action by iconisation: “jy druk / sy fokken neus in jou klipperige kaal geplukte poes” [“plough its nose / right through your fleeced and drybaked cunt”].
- This poem relates to what Krog (1995:15) states in “wintergedig 2” [“winter poem 2”]: “dinge natuurlik waaroor ’n mens nooit ’n gedig sou skryf nie” [“obviously things you would never write a poem about”] (from the volume Gedigte 1989-1994).
References
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Du Plooy, H. 2008. Woorde wat teken en be-teken – ikonisiteit in die poësie. Literator, 29(2), Augustus: 65-88.
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Krog, A. 2006c. Lijfkreet. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Podium.
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Müller, W.G. 2010. Metrical inversion and enjambment in the context of syntactic and morphological structures: Towards a poetics of verse. In: Conradie, J., Johl, R., Beukes, M., Fischer O. & Ljungberg, C. Signergy. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 347-363.
Van Zyl, D. 2009. Grensoorskrydende passie in die poësie van Antjie Krog en Anna Enquist. Vroueverskynsel, konvensie en vernuwing. In: Foster, R; T’Sjoen, Vaessens T., reds. Over grenzen / Oor grense. Den Haag: Uitgeverij Acco. pp. 109-127.
Viljoen, L. 2009. Ons ongehoorde soort. Beskouings oor die werk van Antjie Krog. Stellenbosch: SUN PReSS.
Webster’s Dictionary. 1986. Springfield: Merriam-Webster.
Wybenga, G. & Cloete, T.T. 1992. Ikoon en ikonisiteit. In: Cloete, T.T., red. Literêre terme en teorieë. Pretoria: HAUM-Literêr. pp. 178-182.
To cite: Beukes, M. 2019. The iconisation of physical deterioration with specific reference to Antjie Krog’s poetry volume Verweerskrif (reprint; translation). Stilet, 30(3):114-135.
© 2019. The author.