Ingrid Jonker Tesknota za Kapsztadem
Very Rare
Ingrid Jonker Tesknota za Kapsztadem (Translated by Jerzy Koch and Cornelia Holm from Afrikaans into Polish. (In Afrikaans~ Heimwee na Kaapstad-Inserted some of Jonker's poems dedicated to Andre P. Brink)
Edited and published by WitrynArtystów Publishing House, Poland: 1993
Condition: Very good +: Light Brown Art Paper Card covers with Black Lettering and Art on the front cover by the Afrikaans Translator Cornelia Holm. More art within all by Cornelia Blom
Size 20.5 cm X 14.5 cm - 0.15 kg
Ingrid Jonker Tesknota za Kapsztadem
There is only a handful of people in his home country with whom the Pole Professor Jerzy Koch can easily converse in the language which over the last fifteen years has become his great linguistic passion – Afrikaans. His home in Wrocław in the South of Poland is perhaps the only place in the country where one will be welcomed with homemade bobotie and some biltong which always features on his shopping list whenever he visits South Africa.
In 1993, our paths crossed for the first time in the most unusual manner and unbeknown to both of us at the time. After Daniel Hugo recited some of Ingrid Jonker’s verses to him at Three Anchor Bay, Koch translated a selection of Jonker’s poetry from Afrikaans into Polish. The volume was edited and published by WitrynArtystów, a small publishing house run by none other than my uncle, Bogusław Michnik. Jonker’s poetry collection was most likely the first book ever translated from Afrikaans into Polish. It is one of numerous translations from Dutch and Afrikaans for which Koch received the Martinus Nijhoffprijs in 1995.
Jerzy Koch is also the author of several monographs and numerous articles on South African literature in general, and Afrikaans literature in particular.
(When André P Brink and I first visited my uncle who published Tęsknota za Kapsztadem, he proudly presented the volume to us, not in the least aware of the connection between Ingrid Jonker and André. He was just proud of having published a South African author in translation. I remember I had tears in my eyes when he handed the book over to us and I paged through it, looking for a poem dedicated to André. I found one, pointed at the dedication and then at André, and said to my uncle in Polish: “It’s the same person, you know.” Tears flooded all our eyes. Magic. And Jerzy and I texting to each other in Afrikaans – that’s magic, too.)
Gift Inscriptions and signatures in book.
This book has a very interesting history. Except for the highly Rareness of the book, the book was gifted (Inscribed, dated and signed by the Afrikaans translater Cornelia Holm) to an Adriaan A Storm, which clearly must have been a very close friend. This took place in Den Haag on 2 Feb 1994.
In August 2002 Christiaan A. Storm gifted the book to Zandra Bezuidenhout the published poet and freelance translator.
Zandra Bezuidenhout (b. 1945) studied modern languages at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and education at UNISA. After a career in teaching, she furthered her studies in Afrikaans and Dutch literature at Stellenbosch University and the Rijks University, Leiden. The title of her doctoral dissertation was: 'Socio-literary perspectives on contemporary women’s poetry in Afrikaans and Dutch' (2005). She is a published poet and currently works as a freelance translator from Dutch and English into Afrikaans, including works by Tommy Wieringa, Anna Enquist, Peter Buwalda, Marc de Bel, Fred de Vries and Toef Jaeger.
