Totius
Encyclopedia
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
poet Jacob Daniël du Toit (Yah-kob Dun-ee-el doo-Toy) (21 February 1877 in Paarl
Paarl
Paarl is a town with 191,013 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its the third oldest European settlement in the Republic of South Africa and the largest town in the Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni township, it is now a de facto urban unit with Wellington...
, near Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
– 1 July 1953, in Pretoria
Pretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
).
Life
The poet D.J. Opperman (Awper-mun) compiled brief biographical notes in Afrikaans about Totius/du Toit. Du Toit began his education at the Hugenot Memorial School at Daljosafat in the Cape (1883 - 1885). He then moved to a German mission school named Morgensonne near Rustenburg from 1888 to 1890 before returning, between 1890 and 1894, to his original school at Daljosafat. Later he attended a theological college at BurgersdorpBurgersdorp
Burgersdorp is a small town in the Ukhahlamba District Municipality of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.The Afrikaner Bond political party was founded in Burgersdorp in 1881.-Rail:The first rail connection to Burgersdorp was opened on 19 March 1885...
before becoming a military chaplain with the Boer Commando
Boer Commando
The Boer commando was the basic unit of organisation of the militia of the Boer people of South Africa. The term came into English usage during the Second Boer War.-History:...
s during the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
. After the war, he studied at the Free University
Vrije Universiteit
The Vrije Universiteit is a university in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch name is often abbreviated as VU and in English the university uses the name "VU University". The university is located on a compact urban campus in the southern part of Amsterdam in the Buitenveldert district...
in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
and was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Theology. He became an ordained minister of the Reformed Church of South Africa and from 1911 he was a professor at the Theological College of this Reformed Church in Potchefstroom. As a mature man he travelled to the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
and his impressions of these visits to foreign lands are included in the collection Skemering (1948). (The word Skemering is a pun and difficult to translate. It can relate to "Twilight" but also to "faint recollection").
Du Toit was a deeply religious man and a conservative one in most senses. His small son died at a tender age of an infection and his young daughter, Wilhelmina, was killed by lightning, falling into his arms dead as she ran towards him. He recorded this calamity in the poem "O die pyn-gedagte" (literally "Oh the pain-thoughts").
Du Toit was responsible for much of the translation of the Bible into Afrikaans
Bible translations (Afrikaans)
C. P. Hoogenhout, Arnoldus Pannevis, and Stephanus Jacobus du Toit were the first Afrikaans Bible translators. Important landmarks in the translation of the Scriptures were in 1878 with C. P. Hoogenhout's translation of the Evangelie volgens Markus , however this translation was never published...
, finishing what his father Stephanus Jacobus du Toit had begun. He also put a huge amount of work into producing poetical versions of the Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
in Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
. His poetry was in the main lyrical and dealt, inter alia, with faith, nature, British imperialism and the Afrikaner nation. He left behind many collections of poems, including Trekkerswee (1915; “Trekkers' Grief”) and Passieblomme (1934; “Passion Flowers”).
His poetry
One of the poems from Skemering was translated by C.J.D Harvey as follows:"Night at Sea -- Near Aden"
Nothing but sea and darkness everywhere
as when the earth was desolate and void
and o'er the world-pool hung night, unalloyed
No star and no horizon visible,
no sight or sign the wandering eye to guide,
I hear only the waves beating the side.
Though she sails always on, she now sails blind,
the prow thrusts forward, cleaving through the night.
Only upon the compass, shafts of light.
Another poem, from Passieblomme, translated by J.W. Marchant:
"The World is not our Dwelling Place"
The world is not our dwelling place
I see this in the sun that flees
and see it in the heron that, mistrustfully,
the same sun sees
on one leg from the reedy dale
and once the final rays are gone
a chill spills from this queachy lea
a frigid thrill runs right through me
I see it then in everything
that dusk throws round me in a ring
the world is not our dwelling place
The world is not our dwelling place
I see it when the moon blood red
rising from its field-dust bed
still (only just) the church-roof pares
from where an owl, abstrusely dumb,
sits and at that crescent stares.
As it grows quiet down the way
I recollect how, late today,
the mourners of the afternoon
emerged where owl now meets the moon
I mark it then in everything
while even tightens in a ring
the world is not our dwelling place
The world is not our dwelling place
I feel it when the winds awake
and oaken branches clash and break
I hear it in the fluttering
of little birds whose wings are thrown
against the branches smashed and blown
and find on coming closer yet
by moonbeam's vacillating light
a nest of fledglings overset
hurled down by tempest, shattered, dead
and feel it then in everything
as nighttime closes in a ring
the world is not our dwelling place