A searing story of love, guilt, anger and ultimately a sad song of regret
The language of their love is raw and graphic, but not voyeuristic
Translated by Leon de Kock and Karin Schimke Edited by Francis Galloway Loot.co.za (R298) Umuzi THERE is something elemental about this collection of love letters between André Brink and Ingrid Jonker. Their affair is illustrated in a collection of letters that the reader is invited to piece together to form a narrative.
The first one is from Brink and starts with the salutation, “Delightful little creature”, it goes on to say, “I needed some neutral ‘in transit’ days between the Cape and being back again, just to make the change more gradual. After a week – and especially those three days – of change, I feel very averse to enduring, all over again, that old threat of a settled, ‘safe’, bourgeois life.”
What this significant collection and the editing and curation of it, with amongst others Karina Szczurek, a notable figure in the literary world and Brink’s widow, achieves is twofold. It tells a very personal story about a love affair between two people who fell passionately in love. Brink was 28 at the time, Jonker 30. Both had children; Brink a little boy and Jonker a daughter for whom she was fighting for custody. Brink had the added complication of a wife, Jonker was tied to a dreary job as a proofreader.
The letters came to be published because shortly before his death Brink, indisputably one of South Africa’s most important authors, offered Penguin Random House his correspondence with the poet. It was to my mind an extraordinarily generous thing to do.
Jonker, who was a gifted young poet, and Brink met in April of 1963. She sent him a telegram thanking him for a letter and flowers, but between the lines of this telegram lie a story of a love affair about to blossom.
The relationship continued until three months before Jonker drowned herself after swimming out to sea at Three Anchor Bay.
It is important to note that the collection of letters in this incredible book is not complete, some of the letters are missing, some are in a private collection. What is important is that they were brought together in a searing story of love, guilt, anger and ultimately a sad song of regret.
There is more to the story though than an amazing love story between the two authors; there is an ongoing discussion about the complexities and infighting within the Sestigers movement. Brink is heartbroken when he does not win the CNA award and it goes to DJ Opperman instead. Jonker wins a prize, but Brink cannot be there when it is awarded. Jonker goes overseas on a study grant, and things begin to crumble between the couple.
The language of their love is raw and graphic, but not voyeuristic; it explains how two people can be inextricably linked through both tension and tremendous sexual attraction.
This is probably one of the most touching collections of a correspondence and unusual books I have ever read. But more than that, it is an important addition to the history of literature in South Africa, while also being a tale of elemental love and loss.