Abstract
This dissertation was prompted by the many inter-textual connections that exist in section V of the poetry volume Syspoor by Tom Gouws, and to determine what these relations are. Several texts feature here in close proximity, i.e. the Bible, two Livingstone biographies, Komas uit ’n bamboesstok by D.J. Opperman, Raka by N.P. van Wyk Louw and the Gouws poems. In this study the following questions were asked: Was the Bible text elucidated, communicated and transcribed for the reader via the Livingstone tale in the poems? How did the poet achieve this?
Gouws’s conversance with Biblical/Hebrew poetry and his use of semantic rhyme, chiasms and Midrash in the poems under discussion, became evident in the research and demonstrated the interwoven quality of Syspoor’s section V.
Section V, “ooglede van die dageraad” (eyelids of the morning), comes into being as the result of an “inter-textual interweaving” of several texts. The weaving process as theme was taken into consideration with the study of these poems, because it serves as an indication of the direction which is to be followed when interpreting them, and also because it is the key to their sense and meaning. The word “Syspoor” is semantically loaded and has several interpretations: side-track, siding, His (God’s) track, silk trail or side wound (stigmata).
The many texts which are explicitly ánd implicitly present in this section have to be considered closely, otherwise its sense is lost. The Bible text is summoned immediately in the title of section V, which is a quote from the book of Job, and is repeated in the second motto on the title page. The inter-textual discussion commences right at the outset. A connection is made with Opperman in the first motto on the title page, although the suggestion of the presence of an Opperman text already exists in the striking structural resemblance between Syspoor and Komas uit ’n bamboesstok. The third motto is an extract from a David Livingstone biography by George Seaver: David Livingstone: his life and letters. With the fourth motto on the title page (a quote that is taken from an ancient text, Revelations of the Holy Gertrude which was written in approximately 1334), yet another text joins the inter-textual conversation. Thus, before the contents of the section have been scrutinized, the reader has already been made aware of the interwoven texture of texts.
The abundance of Biblical quotations, which are used as mottoes in section V, act as beacons on the Livingstone trail. The life story of the explorer / missionary becomes the framework into which the poems are ‘woven’, just as the journeys of the explorer, Marco Polo, are used as a basis for Opperman’s Komas uit ’n bamboesstok. The high incidence of Biblical mottoes confirms the importance of the relationship between the first person speaker / Livingstone-figure and his God. The presence or absence of a Biblical motto becomes the key to the semantic content of the poems. Where the Bible text is presented in transcribed form as poetry, the focus on the state of the faith of the first person speaker / missionary is intensified. In this preference for the motto, Gouws joins the tradition of Totius, Opperman and Cloete.
The credo poem and the epilogue of section V bear the same title: “sterfgebed I” and “sterfgebed II” (death prayer). These two poems encircle the 22 poems of the corpus and complete section V compositionally. Both poems are in the form of a prayer and the similarities in their content, structure and theme, lend a cyclical character to the whole. The imminent death of the speaker is postulated and remains subtly present in the other poems. The God:man relationship appears in both poems, so too the motifs of the trail, weaving, Africa, dreams and journeys. These themes are threaded from the first poem through the tightly woven life-fabric of the missionary to be joined together again in the epilogue. The meaning of the Latin word, intertexere, (to intertwine or weave through) is relevant here.
The complex relationship between God and man is highlighted as a central theme in section V: the Livingstone-figure / first person speaker is depicted in all the facets of his humanity. He is a sexual creature, discoverer, missionary, believer and linguist / poet.
With reference to Umberto Eco’s motto of chapter 2, this researcher has come to the conclusion that old, well known tales have been retold in section V “ooglede van die dageraad” of Syspoor, but from a fresh angle of incidence, in a strange, yet familiar way, with the result that the reader will view all the relevant texts with new eyes. To conclude the weaving metaphor: after every silk thread has been inter-woven into the framework, the onlooker steps back and appreciates the whole tapestry as a work of art, judging it according to its twill.
Dr. M.P. Beukes