A poem by ADAM SMALL (translation)

[Izak Bouwer]

THERE’S SOMETHING
Adam Small

You can stop me
drinking a pepsi-cola
at the cafe
in the Avenue
or goin’ to
an Alhambra revue,
you can stop me doin’
some silly thing like that
but o
there’s somethin’ you can
never never do;
you can stop me
boarding a carriage
on the Belleville run
white class
or sittin’ in front
of the X-line
on the Hout Bay bus,
you can stop me doin’
some silly thing like that
but o
there’s somethin’ you can
never never do;
you can stop me
goin’ to Groote Schuur
in the same ambulance
as you
or tryin’ to go to Heaven
from a Groote Kerk pew
you can stop me doin’
some silly thing like that
but o
there’s somethin’ you can
never never do;
true’s God
you can stop me doin’
all silly things of that sort
and to think of it
if it comes to that
you can even stop me hatin’
but o
there’s somethin’ you can
never never do -
you can’t
ever
ever
ever stop me
loving
even you!

Adam Small was born at Wellington in 1936.
His first volume of poems was “Verse van die
Liefde” (1957) He is also a playwright and
essayist. The above poem was originally written
in Afrikaans.

From The Penguin Book of South African Verse,
typed on newsgroup by gloudina bouwer