Foreword
The verse drama Germanicus by the Afrikaans poet and dramatist N.P. Van Wyk Louw (1906-1970) is based on the first three chapters of the Annales of the Roman historiographer Tacitus. The drama is a highlight in Afrikaans literature that deserves international attention. It has also on occasion been produced for the radio, its chief interest lying in its magnificent linguistic display.
Its author, Van Wyk Louw, towered over the Afrikaans literary scene as poet and essayist for the central four decades of the twentieth century. He was the first and perhaps the most prominent of the so-called dertigers (‘writers of the thirties’) who worked to rejuvenate Afrikaans literature during the first half of the century. Louw led the way in rejecting a limited, colonial-style literature, concentrating rather on a functional, intellectual and self-analytical poetic style which was rich in symbolism and imagery.
Louw’s influence was such that he may also be considered the role model for, if not also the doyen of, the sestigers (‘writers of the sixties’), another wave of innovative poets and novelists who in that decade broke further new ground in Afrikaans literature, again sending it in new directions and in many ways preparing its readership for the political changes initiated in South Africa some thirty-odd years later.
The interest of this drama lies, however, less in its political undertones than in its amazing sweep of words, Louw’s interpretative sense and his sense of history. Louw is at his best in the great monologues that dominate the various debates between the main protagonists. His non-standard Afrikaans has a grand eloquence that sweeps the reader or listener along in a torrent of densely-argued meaning.
Louw’s poetic Afrikaans is so concise that it requires an effort to be as brief in English. ‘Shakespearian English’, both lexis and word-order, is closer to the Germanic Afrikaans, but would be unacceptable in a modern translation. This more colloquial translation tries to avoid any strangeness of diction while aiming to convey the extent of Louw’s genius to an international readership by adhering to the rhythms and, where possible, the cadences, of the original. The translation is pitched at both a classical and a theatre-going readership, hence the lengthy Introduction, which conveys information and background necessary for the appreciation of the drama by both groups.
Germanicus Page 3