A much-loved figure in South African poetry, Ingrid Jonker’s body of work, though small, continues to speak volumes decades after her death. She delicately and beautifully captured lust, love, heartbreak, anger and the fabric of everyday life in her poems.

 

Composer and vocalist Nicky Schrire sets André Brink and Antjie Krog's English translations of a selection of Jonker’s works to music in a world that blends folk, cinematic and art song genres. The songs are arranged for voice and string quartet, and the poems are delivered in Afrikaans.

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Music composed & arranged by Nicky Schrire

English translations by André Brink & Antjie Krog

(as compiled in “Black Butterflies”)
Borrowed text from letters between Brink & Jonker

translated by Karin Schimke & Leon de Kock

(as published in “Flame in the Snow”)