Mother-Daughter/My Imagination & Daughter

Mother-Daughter

by

Elizabeth Vels

Compiled by Njabulo Ngobese

"Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn" - Harriet Beecher Stowe (writer)

Elizabeth Vels works in mixed media where she layers fragile and cast papers, etching, thread, stitching, paint, ink and text to make artists books and small sequantial works, or larger composite pieces on streched canvas. Her work mines the archaeology of her life of which according to her "reveals the miraculous in the every day".

She has work in Major Public Collections that include the S.A National Gallery Cape Town, Pretoria Art Gallery, Durban Art Gallery, Johannesburg Art Museum, South African Council of Churches, Sasol Collection, University of Stellenbosch to name a few.

Poem:

MY IMAGINATION

Teilharde Fregona

My mother gets ready to go out

I inhale her perfume so rich and so deep

The smell entangles my senses like the vines of a tree

She quickly leaves and I fall off to sleep

Colours explode, fireworks of my imagination

My mind is filled with hope, memories and dreams

All the information and knowledge is kept there

Like a bag overflowing ripped at the seams

I open my eyes but my room is shrouded in darkness

I am scared of the dark, a beast of the night

I shut my eyes tightly and hear the front door

It’s my mother she’s back, things will be alright.

DAUGHTER

Charl Fregona

There are things you should know about

My silent heart,

My dumb tongue.

I know that you breathe the echo of perfume on my pillow

That you clothe yourself in my gown,

Black silk, twist your hair round,

Try to wear my frown

That you sing to keep me in

And stagger across the floor of your life

Wearing my ridiculous stilettos

Because you think you are alone.

I push back mute longing.

We see exactly who we are in our mirrors.

Because you are patterned in my cells,

I carry you across the great divide

Along that steep edge between death and forever,

Lead us through the struggle of birth into love of living.

My divine burden, my heart speaks.

I have been before.

You are not home alone

I am here with strong round walls to enclose you.

Umcabango wami

Siswati translation of poem extract coordinated by Dr Maria Letsie

Ngihogela emakha akhe ladulile nalanukelelako

Leliphunga livakala emiveni yami njengensimu yetihlahla

Imibala iyadubuka, imililo lekhona emicabangweni yami

Ingcondvo yami igcwele ngelitsemba, tinkhumbulo kanye nemaphupho

Ngivule emehlo ami kodvwa likamelo lami likhungatfwe bumnyama

Ndvodzakati

Siswati translation of poem extract coordinated by Dr Maria Letsie

Ngiyati kutsi uphefumlela emakha lamnandzi emcamelweni wakho

Utigcokisa I-gawuni yami,

Isilika lemnyama,ushwile tinwele takho,

Uzama kuswaca njengami

Kutsi uyahlabela kute ungigcine

Kungumtfwalo wami, inhlitiyo yami iyakhuluma

Ngikwentile kucala.

Awusiwedvwa laph’ ekhaya

Ngikhona netindvonga leticinile ngikukakile.

A Brief Biography of Teilharde & Charl Fregona

Tei Fregona was born in 1992 in Durban and is a student in Kloof High School.She has had three books published by Umsinsi Press. Tei sings, plays the guitar and loves reading. She is currently planning on becoming a pop star, but cannot make up her mind if she would rather train dolphins or be a trapeze artist instead. Tei has been writing poetry since she started reading and writing.

Charl Fregona was born in Prieska, in the Northern Cape, but grew up in Zimbabwe. Charl is an instructional designer at the Centre for Higher Education Development at the Durban University of Technology, and is currently studying for a PhD in web-based learning and teaching.

She has three children, loves to read and travel. Her first poem was published at the age of nine and she has subsequently been published in Zimbabwe, South Africa and the United States as a short story writer, a poet and a novelist. She has edited a number of poetry anthologies, one of which is Liz Vels’s collection, Handspun.