Lekka Lekka ywe!

English Readers – enjoy the chicken jokes in this post. This post is mainly Afrikaans. There is an Afrikaans song too – about chickens – sung by a Capetonion. I really enjoy this song and the Afrikaans is typical of the Cape Coloureds. I love their accent and the way they express themselves, it’s very unique and very colourful. I have two Afrikaans poems too. When I was at primary school, we learned many poems by heart and these two are still fresh in my mind as I enjoyed the word-play and the way the poets expressed themselves. You do miss out  if you can’t read Afrikaans,  as Blum’s poem  is rich in humour.

So why did the chicken cross the road?

Aristotle:  To actualize its potential.
Julius Caesar:  To come, to see, to conquer.
Rene Descartes:  It had sufficient reason to believe it was dreaming anyway.
Dr. Seuss:   Did the chicken cross the road?
Did he cross it with a toad?
Yes! The chicken crossed the road,
but why it crossed, I’ve not been told!
Bill Gates:   I have just released Chicken XP, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book — and Explorer is an inextricable part of the operating system.
Plato: For the greater good.
Karl Marx:   It was a historical inevitability.
Nietzsche:   Because if you gaze too long across the Road, the Road gazes also across you.
Carl Jung:   The confluence of events in the cultural gestalt necessitated that individual chickens cross roads at this historical juncture, and therefore synchronicitously brought such occurrences into being.
Albert Einstein:  Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road crossed the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.
David Hume:   Out of custom and habit.
Mark Twain:   The news of its crossing has been greatly exaggerated.
William Shakespeare: I don’t know why, but methinks without much ado. William Wordsworth:  To have something to recollect in tranquility.

Jokes and cartoon: Randyshomestead

Peter Emil Julius Blum was born on 4 May 1925 in Trieste, Italy. Blum arrived in South Africa as a child. At this time, he was already able to speak several languages, among others German and Italian. After his studies in Cape Town and Stellenbosch, he took up a position as a librarian in Cape Town.

Blum got married in 1955 to Henrietta Cecilia Smit, who was an art teacher.He wrote and published several articles and poems, which were not always uncontroversial. His success as a poet was first affirmed in 1956 when he won the Reina Prinsen Geerligs Prize for his volume Steenbok tot poolsee (the title being a reference to the Tropic of Capricorn and the southern Antarctic Ocean, relating to the geographical location of South and Southern Africa). Source: Wikipedia

Peter Blum – Image: Stellenboschwriters

Die miljenêr se kombuis

‘n Pellie van my, wa da’ wêk as kok,
het my vandag laat inloer innie huis
vannie ou miljenêr,sy baas. Kombuis?
Jy sou gasê het dis die Duncan-dok!

Tsaaina en messegoed tot anie nok,
Fridzidêrs volgaprop met piekfyn vleis,
Eiers,vrugta en groentes van ‘n soort bok!

Toe sê hy, “Ennie kjeller’s die ena kroeg –
Whisky en brannewyn ,dzien en muskedil.”
Toe sê ek , Wragtie , diè baas is gaseën!

Ga’ hy nou patie skop? Daa’s oorganoeg
Om twintag ouens ‘n week lank te laat smul.
“Nei” , sê hy ,”die baas eet altyd alleen.”

Peter Blum

DIE DUNCAN VAN DIE DUNCAN-DOK

Sir Patrick Duncan het in April 1937 goewerneur-generaal geword. Hy is benoem deur die toenmalige eerste minister, J.B.M. Hertzog.

Hoewel hy in Engeland gebore is, het Duncan die grootste gedeelte van sy volwasse lewe in Suid-Afrika deurgebring, waar hy onder meer as minister van binnelandse sake, onderwys en openbare werke en later minister van mynwese gedien het.

Na afloop van die Anglo-Boereoorlog, waar hy onder lord Alfred Milner ge­dien het, het hy ’n tyd lank as prokureur in Johannesburg gewerk.
Duncan is op 17 Julie 1943 oorlede.
Sy graf is by die Portnet-gebou in die Kaapse hawe en kan deur die publiek besoek word.
http://jv.dieburger.com//Stories/News/19.0.1563301634.aspx
Bronne: http://www.lib.uct.ac.za; http://www.sahistory.org.za.

Dankie aan Skoor en Sigeuner vir al die moeite met die vind van hierdie gedig deur Peter Blum. Op hierdie link van Skoor se blog kan julle die gesprekke gaan opvolg…natuurlik was my brein bietjie verroes ook en het ek hierdie twee gedigte op ‘n stadium gemeng! [hehe] Spesiale dankie aan Skoor vir die pragtige Afrikaanse musiek wat sy aangestuur het en vir Sigeuner se massiewe soektog – haar FBI-agente inkluis! – na die gedig. Talle e-posse het tussen my en Sigeneur heen-en-weer gevlieg en tussen haar besige, dolle, gejaagde  lewe – met kinders en huiswerk tussen-in, het sy nogtans tyd gemaak om ook Sherlok Houms  en haar ondergrondse Mafia agente nader te trek in hierdie soektog![hehe] Dankie Sigeuner! Ek geniet die taal van die Kaapse Kleurlinge en hoe hulle hulself uitdruk – vol humor en ek kan my verluister aan hulle. Geniet die Hoender song van die CD wat Skoor my gestuur het.

Kaalvoet Klonkie – ID du Plessis 

Verflenterde kaalvoet klonkie
Wat groente verkoop in die reën,
Met jou lelike skurwe tone
En jou lendelam hoepelbeen,
Jy kom met jou venterliedjie
Deur die mistige Kaapse straat
En helder sing jy die woorde
Op jou eie koddige maat:

Lekka, lekka ywe,
Laat die ghantang nadderskywe!
Tamaties en ywe vars van die Strand
En baie kiri slam by die huis se kant!

Jy kom uit die deel van die Kanaldorp
Waar die dieners gewapend moet gaan
En die weerlig van `n skeermeslem
In `n donker hoek neer mag slaan.
Miskien kon jy :Bismillah” sê
Vanmôre, omdat in die kas
Wat dae lank so leeg moet bly,
Daar weer `n broodjie was?
Of dink jy al aan Nuwejaar
As die troepe deur Waalstraat stroom
Van die Bo-Kaap na die Onder-Kaap
Langs die stomp van die slaweboom?
Is dit wat jou so laat bokspring
En dans op jou hoepelbeen,
Verflenterde kaalvoet klonkie,
As jy groente verkoop in die reën?
Ek hou van jou vrolike klanke
Waarmee jy die winter tart.
Sing jy hierdie ligte deuntjie
Bo `n somberte in jou hart?
En as jy op na die Boereplein
Met jou boepens-mandjie gaan,
Dan trek jou parmantige liedjie
Deur die strate agter jou aan:

Lekka, lekka ywe,
Laat die ghantang nadderskywe!
Tamaties en ywe vars van die Strand
En baie kiri slam by die huis se kant!

Lekka Lekka ywe!

Chicken art – by Alexis Bester