Poet
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Charl-Pierre Naudé 1958-... country: South Africa language: Afrikaans |
Publications (selection): Die nomadiese oomblik, Tafelberg uitgewers, Kaapstad 1995. (1958), is one of the most ambitious poets of South Africa, although he has published only one volume, Die nomadiese oomblik (The Nomadic Moment), which appeared in 1995. His firstling was reviewed positively in the South African press and the tone was set. One reviewer called it the strongest debut of the past decade. In actual fact, poetic debuts are rather sparse in South Africa. in his mammoth anthology of Afrikaans poetry selected no fewer than eight poems from Die nomadiese oomblik. Rather a lot for a debutant - an honour conferred on few poets. Compared with the poetry of countrymen and contemporaries such as and Loit Sôls, Naudé’s poetry is markedly aesthetic; it lacks the exuberant sensitivity and romantic agony one finds in Vlok Nel’s poetry, and the tinge of didacticism in Sôls language experiments. No, in the four sections of this volume Naudé goes back to the old poetic forms and even practises sonnets - all free verse, it’s true, but no less remarkable. I suspect that poetically Naudé feels best at home with poets like and T.T. Cloete and surely with the great example of many a South African poet: Peter Blum (1925–1990), seeing the humour in his work, take for instance the poem ‘I hate my bank manager’. But surrealism too reigns supreme, but different in form compared to the surreal idiosyncrasy of . From the versatility which Naudé brings to the fore, it is evident that we are dealing with a keen observer. In an interview with a South African newspaper, Naudé says that poetry to him has a social as well as an individual side to it. Typical for a South African poet cum journalist to say that. By the way, Naudé’s other ambition is of one day becoming captain of a barge and sail the Congo river in Zaire. Author: Robert Dorsman |
