Saturday 21 February 2015

Year of the Horned Creature in Detention


With the Chinese horse finally bolted out of the stable, in prances this horned creature or animal. Is it a goat? Is it a sheep? Is it a Ram? Or is it just maybe Pan? Could this be an entire year lost in translation?


Mystified I joined friends in the Old China Town cloaked in the shadow of the notorious John Vorster Square and the dreaded Security Branch of the Apartheid Government’s Police Force, but today we joined in mass to celebrate the coming in of the new Chinese year, the Year of the Horned Creature aka Goat, Sheep, or Ram, with loud bangs and lots of fireworks.


So as the echoes from Chris van Wyk’s poem "In Detention" ran through my mind as blasts of crackers blew up near me under the skies which sparkled against the chocking smoke as the tears of the rain began to fall.


He fell from the ninth floor
He hanged himself
He slipped on a piece of soap while washing
He hanged himself
He slipped on a piece of soap while washing
He fell from the ninth floor
He hanged himself while washing
He slipped from the ninth floor
He hung from the ninth floor
He slipped on the ninth floor while washing
He fell from a piece of soap while slipping
He hung from the ninth floor
He washed from the ninth floor while slipping
He hung from a piece of soap while washing.


All this while ominously looming over China Town. Bang! Bang! Wohoooosh!



Back to the New Year. The Mandarin Chinese character羊 denoting this new year means a horned animal of sorts which covers quite a lot of animals. Sheep are cute but not known to be leaders, more follow the pack. Goats tend to be more on the evil side but very tasty according to traditional culture. Rams on the other hand are more manly, aggressive and sadly alone. Then we have Pan. A wild mischievous mythical creature/god that was half goat half human, ahhh Puck of my Shakespearian youth.



So if you do follow the Chinese calendar, pray tell what year are we entering into? Is it the Year of the tasty Goat? Or are you going to be aggressive and say it is the Year of the Ram? Or are you going to follow the pack and say it is the Year of the Sheep? Or is it the Year of the Pan, full of wild mischievous abandonment?



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