The calibre of poems entered into this year's AVBOB Poetry Prize competition made it a challenge for the 11 language editors to choose winners.
This year's competition drew more than 29 000 entries and was open to 11 official languages with a winner of each language category. The winners were announced at a gala event on Thursday, with each of the 11 firstplace winners receiving a R10 000 cash prize and a R2 500 book voucher.
The poems will be captured in the second volume of the competition print anthology, I Wish I'd said, which was compiled by competition editor-in-chief Johann De Lange, and academic, poet and author Mandla Maphumulo.
Volume Two includes 101 poems with English translations: 55 specially commissioned poems, and 44 poems drawn from the second competition.
AVBOB chief executive Frik Rademan said: "In our darkest hour, we all need upliftment and consolation. And so we built the themes of love, hope and birth into the competition. The AVBOB Poetry Competition and print anthology – along with the 'What If, South Africa?' campaign – serve to address our collective need for comfort and care. And they offer us a meditation on the things that bring us together as a nation – our experience of loss, our desire to unburden, and our need for hope."
The respective language submissions winners, along with their poems, are: Afrikaans, Tom Dreyer, Slaap jy solank, dan hou ek die fort; English, Jaco Fouché, A feeling like leaving harbour; isiNdebele, Mfana Skhosana, Isivunguvungu; isiXhosa, Simphiwe Ali Nolutshungu, Emaxhoseni; isiZulu, Halalisile Mkhize, Ubungumthombo; Sepedi, Kgabo Sebatjane, Mmane Makalawua Sebatjane; Sesotho, Kaizer Tjokoane, E thobile thatohatsi; Setswana, Thatayaone Dire, Ke a dira; Siswati, Nokukhanya Mahlalela, Ngiyafisa kube ngasho; Tshivenda, Matodzi Magoro, Nga duvha langa la vhufhelo; Xitsonga, Patrick Khosa, U tatana.
"Homage is paid to the Khoisan languages, with the inclusion of two poems by the /Xam poet Diä!kwain. And with the third AVBOB Poetry Competition launching on August 1 and running until November 30 2019, the poets, and people of South Africa will once again be able to take up pencil and paper, mobile and laptop, and craft poems that connect us one to the other , and offer us comfort and consolation," said Rademan.
Competition entrant Gregory Jumanji confirmed this with a tweet: "I feel like the poetry is inside my bloodstream. AVBOB really saved the nation with this one."
The anthology can be ordered at www.naledi.online or 078 648 8616, and is available from most bookstores. Alternatively, SMS the word 'poem' to 48423 (at a standard cost of R1.50 per SMS) to have it posted to you at a total cost of R220.
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