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    The Heart's Interpreter
    The Heart's Interpreter
    The Heart's Interpreter
    Ebook117 pages57 minutes

    The Heart's Interpreter

    By Mphutlane wa Bofelo

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    About this ebook

    "...A poet philanthropist
    A psychologist prophet
    A punk philosopher
    Put all the P’s together,
    Even the pee in the loo to define me
    But never ever politician
    I am no good with rehearsed hugs..."

    The Heart's Interpreter evenly straddles the personal and political with a collection of sublime poems of love and candid sociopolitical commentary.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHamza Moleleki
    Release dateSep 24, 2015
    ISBN9780620680813
    The Heart's Interpreter

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      Book preview

      The Heart's Interpreter - Mphutlane wa Bofelo

      The Hearts Interpreter

      By Mphutlane wa Bofelo

      Published by: Bantu Works Investments (Pty) Ltd

      Copyright 2015 by Mphutlane wa Bofelo

      Editing and Foreword by Angifi Dladla

      Smashwords Edition

      ebook ISBN 978-0-620-64887-5

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold

      or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person,

      please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did

      not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your

      favorite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard

      work of this author.

      Your speech is indicative of what is in your heart. The tongue is the heart’s interpreter, so if the heart is confused, what is said will sometimes be correct and sometimes invalid; there will be times when you are incapable of expressing something properly, and others when you are able to do so. When the heart stops causing it to be confused, the tongue will function properly.

      - Shaykh Abdal-Qadir al-Jilani

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Foreword

      I am scared of going into darkness

      When at night fall

      Official announcement

      Beastly man

      Fly

      You

      Vice versa

      Jazz

      They say

      The day the poetry died

      The man in me

      Township vibe

      Letters to Tshego

      The revolutionary is in town

      Return of the Barbarians

      Twenty-one gun-salute

      Tonight

      Seilatsatsi

      One bright summer morning

      Of angels and beasts

      Conversations with Bob Marley

      Honeymoon morning glory

      Love

      A response to the prophets of aestheticism

      Anti-poetry poem

      Gumba

      Let poets close their eyes

      Durban 21 March 2007

      I said I could dance

      Song of the free thinking

      Hymn 1

      Hymn 2

      I slam therefore I am

      Letter to Mr Critic

      Meditations

      Blues

      Reflections on Poetry

      Letter to Goitsemodimo

      Kodi ya malla

      Dedication and Acknowledgements

      FOREWORD

      In contemporary politics the new aristocrat in South Africa- just like anywhere in Africa-originates from the Third World part of the country. His new status catapults him to the safer, highly developed part of the country-the First World. He is transmogrified and fictionalised into a First World leader. This works on him. His powerful counterparts: Bush, Blair, Brown and Mr Industrialist invite and lionize him, because he is not empty-handed. He flaunts the best constitution on earth and a certified copy of the Nobel Prize certificate of peaceful revolution. As a first world leader, he parades himself to the tune of his praise-poet. To be a consummate First World leader it’s imperative that he amasses wealth and develops sophistication. Unlike the apartheid noble, this one is refined and civilised, By chance I met him at a dinner party \ Asked him to clarify the difference\ Between retrenchment and rightsizing\ ‘It is not cultured to talk while you are eating\He said While the ruler’s mouth is full, in the township water and electricity (are) disconnected. No wonder that the noveau riche is At home in New York\Terrified in Soweto"

      Mphutlane wa Bofelo is a performance-poet, drawing on the Basotho rap traditions. Though he does this not in the manner of Apollo Ntabanyane, Puseletso Seema and Tau ya Matshekga, he is certainly not a court or praise-poet. The latter- conventionally a male- has been prominent and highly celebrated from ancient times. Later he was inherited by the Bantustan leaders who handed him over to the new aristocrats in 1994. But the performance-poet is part of the community. He or she takes part in all human activities and as a human being, sings about everything from death Bury me as I lived\ Simple and easy to love In the meeting of our faces\ and the contact of our eyes\ I see the union of moonlight and sunrays. This is a man who wants To be free \ To speak like a child \Say my fears without fear\Laugh my laughter out\Smile with no restrain\ And not smile when I am snarling\ No snarl when I am smiling…A man who can, Decipher your passionate call\From the roar of hungry lions. A survivor of the brutality and torture of the apartheid Special Branch, he recalls how his mother Rose up in the morning\Made tea and unbuttered bread\But found my bed empty.

      This is the poet of the struggle who is still with his people, loving them, alerting them: The Gestapo is not in the pages of history books\ Fascism is raising the clenched fist\ Patriarchy is dancing the toi-toi. He laments the fact that "Malcolm X is a citation in a dissertation\ Fanon is a footnote in a thesis\

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