Poet Interview: Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal

"Musicality is central to my poems"

In the latest of a series of interviews with uHlanga poets, Megan Natasha Ross chats to Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal about his first collection in English, the questions raised by (self-)translation, and the influence of music on his award-winning poetry.

“Being a musician and having performed for most of my life, the way in which poems sound in my mouth and on stage has always been a principal consideration when deciding which turn of phrase, which word, to use. Transferring this musicality to English was one of the greatest joys of the translation process – finding another rhythm and sonority in English that could provide the scaffolding for what I wanted to say.”

Read the full interview.