---
title: "Experience the depth of SA life: Pieter Odendaal's poetry now accessible in English"
description: "For the first time, English-language readers can engage with the work of Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal, a distinctive voice among South Africa’s younger generation of Afrikaans poets."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "BOOK EXCERPT"
author: "Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/pieter-madibuseng-odendaal/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-07-06-experience-the-depth-of-sa-life-pieter-odendaals-poetry-now-accessible-in-english/"
published: "2025-07-06T07:00:14"
updated: "2025-07-01T10:26:38"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 257
---

# Experience the depth of SA life: Pieter Odendaal's poetry now accessible in English

> For the first time, English-language readers can engage with the work of Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal, a distinctive voice among South Africa’s younger generation of Afrikaans poets.

By Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal · Published 6 July 2025, 09:00 SAST · Updated 1 July 2025, 12:26 SAST

## Key points
- In a poetic debut that invites English readers to wade through the rich, red soil of South Africa's complexities, Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal's self-translated verses bloom like wildflowers in a storm, capturing the beautiful chaos of love, legacy, and the relentless downpour of life.
- Young Afrikaans poet Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal collaborates with Uhlanga for a groundbreaking poetry translation.
- His self-translated selection captures themes of ancestry, young love, and the complexities of modern South African life.
- The collection invites English readers to engage with Odendaal's confident and introspective voice.
- "a corpse is also a garden" showcases the beauty and turmoil of existence, reflecting on nature and forgiveness.

## Content

In this self-translated selection from his first [two collections](https://uhlangapress.co.za/pieter-madibuseng-odendaal-a-corpse-is-also-a-garden), Odendaal brings a quiet clarity to poems that navigate personal inheritance, relationships, and everyday life.

His work is measured and thoughtful, whether confronting the weight of ancestral history, the uncertainties of love, or the complex realities of contemporary South Africa. These are poems that gesture inward and outward, tracing the threads that bind us to one another and to the landscapes we inhabit and return to.

**\*\*\***

#### **when the world nears its end**

*and winter rain occupies bloemfontein*

*I listen while the muted day*

*replays against my eyelids*

*to the waves of raindrops on zinc*

*chanting protests*

*how many litres has the sky*

*poured out onto this land?*

*why is the soil still so red?*

*weak acid patters away cars and cables*

*the clouds strike thunderbolt retributions*

*drops of rain salve my neighbour’s bare feet on his stoep showing him what forgiveness feels like*

*how many litres has the sky*

*poured out onto this land?*

*why is the soil still so red?*

*I hear the water’s breath*

*si!ing through the photons of streetlights*

*the tired dance on middle-class roofs*

*the trickling and trampling in gutters*

*the whirlpools down drains*

*swallowing all sound*

*how many litres has the sky*

*poured out onto the land?*

*why is the soil still so red?*

*elsewhere*

*beyond the rain*

*another me stands*

*cupped ears under quiet stars waiting with the land*

*for the wind to turn*

**DM**

[*a corpse is also a garden*](https://uhlangapress.co.za/pieter-madibuseng-odendaal-a-corpse-is-also-a-garden)*by**Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal**is published by*[*Uhlanga*](https://uhlangapress.co.za/blog/2025/5/26/announcing-a-corpse-is-also-a-garden-by-pieter-madibuseng-odendaal)*.*