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The Swan Whisperer: An Inaugural Lecture (Volume 25)
This playful, genre-bending cahier tells the story of pale, anxious creative writing student Kasper Olwagen and his strange encounter with the phenomenon of translation in the person of the Swan Whisperer. Through brilliantly imagined letters and recordings, van Niekerk recounts Olwagen's discovery of a vagrant who, without uttering any even remotely intelligible words, summons swans from Amsterdam's canals. Through the story of Olwagen's experience, van Niekerk probes the relationship between language and experience, writing and translation, stories and truth.
A story of doubles, cadence, and, yes, swan whispering, The Swan Whisperer delves into the playfulness of sound in the Afrikaans language and the necessity for listening in all translation.
A story of doubles, cadence, and, yes, swan whispering, The Swan Whisperer delves into the playfulness of sound in the Afrikaans language and the necessity for listening in all translation.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
40 pages, Paperback
Published October 15, 2015
About the author
Marlene van Niekerk
17 books61 followersMarlene van Niekerk is a South African author who is best known for her novel Triomf. Her graphic and controversial descriptions of a poor Afrikaner family in Johannesburg brought her to the forefront of a post-apartheid society, still struggling to come to terms with all the changes in South Africa. In translation by Leon de Kock, this book was critically acclaimed in the US and UK, and was filmed in 2008.
Van Niekerk studied Languages and Philosophy at Stellenbosch University. While here, she wrote three plays for the lay theatre. In 1979 she moved to Germany to join theatres in Stuttgart and Mainz as apprentice for directing. From 1980 to 1985 she continued her studies of philosophy in The Netherlands. Back in South Africa she lectured in Philosophy at the University of Zululand, and later at the University of South Africa in Pretoria. Afterwards she was lecturer in Afrikaans and Dutch Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Although she made her debut as a poet in 1977 and subsequently published another volume of poetry and a volume of short stories, it was the publication of Triomf in 1994 which catapulted her to fame. Her long-awaited second novel, Agaat (2004) was equally critically acclaimed. It was translated by fellow novelist, Michiel Heyns, and appeared in the UK and US as The Way of the Women. Her third novel, Memorandum: A Story with Pictures (also translated by Heyns) appeared in 2006. She is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of Stellenbosch.
Van Niekerk studied Languages and Philosophy at Stellenbosch University. While here, she wrote three plays for the lay theatre. In 1979 she moved to Germany to join theatres in Stuttgart and Mainz as apprentice for directing. From 1980 to 1985 she continued her studies of philosophy in The Netherlands. Back in South Africa she lectured in Philosophy at the University of Zululand, and later at the University of South Africa in Pretoria. Afterwards she was lecturer in Afrikaans and Dutch Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Although she made her debut as a poet in 1977 and subsequently published another volume of poetry and a volume of short stories, it was the publication of Triomf in 1994 which catapulted her to fame. Her long-awaited second novel, Agaat (2004) was equally critically acclaimed. It was translated by fellow novelist, Michiel Heyns, and appeared in the UK and US as The Way of the Women. Her third novel, Memorandum: A Story with Pictures (also translated by Heyns) appeared in 2006. She is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of Stellenbosch.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 18, 2020
3.5
Zbirka je ovo od četiri priče koje na poseban način, svaki dio za sebe, govore o stvarnosti prožetom fikcijom. Teme su životne i ispričane na posebno zanimljiv način. Imamo jedan inauguracijski govor pa nadgrobni govor, terenski izvještaj i predavanje, uz pomoć kojih uviđamo, prelazeći iz jedne priče u drugu, da su i tematski povezane. Koja je nit poveznica i što je zbilja, a što nije, sami ćete morati dokučiti.
Cijeli osvrt pronađite ovdje: https://knjige-u-svom-filmu.webador.c...
Zbirka je ovo od četiri priče koje na poseban način, svaki dio za sebe, govore o stvarnosti prožetom fikcijom. Teme su životne i ispričane na posebno zanimljiv način. Imamo jedan inauguracijski govor pa nadgrobni govor, terenski izvještaj i predavanje, uz pomoć kojih uviđamo, prelazeći iz jedne priče u drugu, da su i tematski povezane. Koja je nit poveznica i što je zbilja, a što nije, sami ćete morati dokučiti.
Cijeli osvrt pronađite ovdje: https://knjige-u-svom-filmu.webador.c...
November 2, 2021
Nie 'n maklike of genotvolle lees nie. Bedroewig en hoogdrawend, eintlik. Die intreerede, alhoewel insiggewend tot die strawwe persoonlikheid van die skrywer, skep 'n tragiese gevoel wat die latere stories verdonker. Of dalk is dit die regte boek op die verkeerde tyd.
November 12, 2018
What a strange, uncanny and disconcerting book. Haunting and atmospheric. A short story interspersed with paintings.
There is a simple story. A student of creative writing, Kasper, is unsuited for the role, according to his tutor. “He was intelligent, obsessive, withdrawn…for appointments he wore a waistcoat, a ruby-red bowtie, and his fountain pen was visible in the inside pocket of his jacket.”
His tutor (the writer of this narrative, which is given in the form of a lecture to her colleagues) recommends a few months in Europe for Kasper, in Amsterdam. He writes to her from there, from a hospital room, a 67-page letter. She sets it aside. She is busy. She has a novel to finish. Then, eight months later, he sends cassette tapes that tumble form a package. Finally a parcel full of fine sand.
Along with the sixteen cassettes is a notebook, “The Logbook of the Swan Whisperer”. Kasper describes a man of 40 or 50 with white hair who waits under city bridges to summon swans and descends to water level on a rope ladder to greet them, “bewhisper them”. Kasper’s writing provides his tutor’s response; “This is insufficient material, it smells of parable…”
Kasper adopts the man, takes him into his home and washes him clean, feeds and nurtures him, but cannot get him to utter a word. He tries all manner of doctors. Then the man summons a whole flock of swans, hundreds of them in the dawn light, and then he is gone. Kasper cannot find him, and becomes almost a vagrant himself as he searches. His descriptions, which the tutor keeps quoting, is poetic. “I was part of a procession, a silent convoy of the urban lost and looking, all of us connected at the wrist by an endless black ribbon, all of us perhaps thinking that perhaps we have found a missing person, but afraid to make this hope known, afraid of disappointment, choosing rather the solace of the community of like-minded individuals, the consolation of not being alone, of being the least breakable brotherhood on earth: of those who have stayed on, who have survived, who have been left behind.”
The tutor takes interest now, follows clues, listens to the noises on the cassettes, and eventually finds the remote location where the recordings were made, the sound of river water over a certain bed of stones. She stops trying to be a writer, a novelist, and instead becomes a translator, finding a way to turn these unwritten sounds into patterns and words and eventually poems.
A strangely beguiling tale, unexpected and somehow pleasing.
There is a simple story. A student of creative writing, Kasper, is unsuited for the role, according to his tutor. “He was intelligent, obsessive, withdrawn…for appointments he wore a waistcoat, a ruby-red bowtie, and his fountain pen was visible in the inside pocket of his jacket.”
His tutor (the writer of this narrative, which is given in the form of a lecture to her colleagues) recommends a few months in Europe for Kasper, in Amsterdam. He writes to her from there, from a hospital room, a 67-page letter. She sets it aside. She is busy. She has a novel to finish. Then, eight months later, he sends cassette tapes that tumble form a package. Finally a parcel full of fine sand.
Along with the sixteen cassettes is a notebook, “The Logbook of the Swan Whisperer”. Kasper describes a man of 40 or 50 with white hair who waits under city bridges to summon swans and descends to water level on a rope ladder to greet them, “bewhisper them”. Kasper’s writing provides his tutor’s response; “This is insufficient material, it smells of parable…”
Kasper adopts the man, takes him into his home and washes him clean, feeds and nurtures him, but cannot get him to utter a word. He tries all manner of doctors. Then the man summons a whole flock of swans, hundreds of them in the dawn light, and then he is gone. Kasper cannot find him, and becomes almost a vagrant himself as he searches. His descriptions, which the tutor keeps quoting, is poetic. “I was part of a procession, a silent convoy of the urban lost and looking, all of us connected at the wrist by an endless black ribbon, all of us perhaps thinking that perhaps we have found a missing person, but afraid to make this hope known, afraid of disappointment, choosing rather the solace of the community of like-minded individuals, the consolation of not being alone, of being the least breakable brotherhood on earth: of those who have stayed on, who have survived, who have been left behind.”
The tutor takes interest now, follows clues, listens to the noises on the cassettes, and eventually finds the remote location where the recordings were made, the sound of river water over a certain bed of stones. She stops trying to be a writer, a novelist, and instead becomes a translator, finding a way to turn these unwritten sounds into patterns and words and eventually poems.
A strangely beguiling tale, unexpected and somehow pleasing.
October 1, 2013
Difficult book for me to judge. I appreciate its structural and thematic ingenuity, but Marlene Van Niekerk's writing style is SO SO dense. Some pages are a mere whirlwind of words. It felt like her 'fancy footwork' (to use a term from one of my professors) took precedence over the narrative. Two stars for enjoyment, three for my appreciation of her technique.
April 6, 2023
Die boek het my in ‘n moerse lees-slump gesit. Ek wou met tye regtig nie die boek optel nie, and yet I kept going back for more. Die toon is met tye (meeste van die tye) hoogdrawend en die Nederlandse konteks/spasies vervreemdend. Maar dit ís Marlene van Niekerk aan die woord hier, en net Van Niekerk kan skryf soos Van Niekerk. Daar is gedeeltes wat beautiful is, en die vier verhale word só slim en onverwags met mekaar verweef – ek het dít baie geniet. Dalk was ek net nie in die regte head space vir dié verhale nie. Ek gee wel vier sterre want dit ís meesterlik geskryf en gestruktureer; dis karakters en filosofiese gedagtes wat in my kop vassteek en my op onverwagse maniere bekoor, selfs noudat ek die boek finaal neergesit het. Die laaste verhaal was my absolute gunsteling, so ek is bly I stuck it out. Daarom ook die vier sterre (andersins was dit ‘n solid 3/3.5 volgens my). Ek vermoed ek het die laaste verhaal so baie geniet omdat dit meer authentic en plaaslik gevoel het; die ander verhale se sterk Nederlandse konteks/spasie was met tye vir my té alienating en daarom ‘n turn off. Ek moet ook net byvoeg dat, alhoewel hoogdrawend, bedroewig en diep filosofies, is die overall effek wholesome af. Ek sal dit beslis later in my lewe weer optel en lees, dalk vind ek dan meer aanklank en het ek lus vir dié karakters.
Ook nuuskierig of die Engelse vertaling dalk lekkerder lees.
Ook nuuskierig of die Engelse vertaling dalk lekkerder lees.
January 16, 2026
Dit is die eerste keer wat ek Marlene van Niekerk lees en ek besef nou dat ek iets baie spesiaals gemis het.
’n Besondere verhaal waar elke vertelling deel word van ’n groter geheel. As ons fyn luister en ophou om dom te wees, kan ons dit ook sien, "die speling van verlewendigde lig". Mag ek so leef dat ek nie ’n "kameraadskap", ’n "bondgenootskap met ’n vrygewige, vertrouende siel" sal versmaai nie.
’n Besondere verhaal waar elke vertelling deel word van ’n groter geheel. As ons fyn luister en ophou om dom te wees, kan ons dit ook sien, "die speling van verlewendigde lig". Mag ek so leef dat ek nie ’n "kameraadskap", ’n "bondgenootskap met ’n vrygewige, vertrouende siel" sal versmaai nie.
June 17, 2018
De verhalen spreken niet heel erg tot mijn verbeelding maar ze zijn geweldig knap geschreven.
April 27, 2023
Een verhaal in de magische zin van het woord
January 7, 2025
Was 'n bietjie stadig. Daar was verskeie aanhalings in Hollands(?), eks nie seker nie en ek was nie bereid om soveel keer te google nie 🤗
Het eintlik net van die laaste storie gehou.
Het eintlik net van die laaste storie gehou.
December 17, 2025
'n Liefdesode aan die skeppingsproses.
Of liewer die skryfproses.
Gedeeltelik inkantasie
Gedeeltelik aanroeping
Die materialiteit van die woorde vier hoogty
en vergestalt ambient poetics
'n sublieme werk.
Of liewer die skryfproses.
Gedeeltelik inkantasie
Gedeeltelik aanroeping
Die materialiteit van die woorde vier hoogty
en vergestalt ambient poetics
'n sublieme werk.
January 22, 2016
This was originally published at The Scrying Orb.
I usually try and avoid books about writers. Or specifically works of fiction about writers of fiction. They can easily run dangerously self-aggrandizing or saccharine. You get this combo of O, my struggle! combined with something about the grand importance and essential nature of fiction — something I agree with completely but find suspect when delivered in the form of a writer constructing a clay model of themself.
(By contrast, I do love many books about books, from If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler to The Princess Bride to The Satanic Verses)
If you hadn’t guessed by now, The Swan Whisperer is a book about writing. Not just about writing, but formal creative writing classes. And not actually a book, but more a short story posing as one, about forty pages and illustrated.
The conceit here is that the narrator of the story is a South African creative writing teacher giving a lecture to her colleagues about an erstwhile student of hers who, on a trip to Amsterdam to snap his writer’s block, befriends the mysterious Swan Whisperer, an old man who descends to the canals every morning to commune with a legion of swans. The narrator goes on to explain that the student, Kasper, has been sending her cryptic letters, cassettes, and packages and excerpts of each are printed verbatim in the text.
It’s beautiful. The Swan Whisperer overcame any prejudices I had about books about writing. I’m usually not the type to sigh and wish if only this short tale were longer… but I did here. I wanted to continue, to hear more of Kasper’s secrets.
On the first page, Van Niekerk asks:
By the end of the story, I feel like maybe the answer is “Who knows?” or “Maybe it can’t possible do those things.” Maybe writing must instead be taught by winters abroad on frozen canals, falling in love with mute homeless men, savage history, love of fables, the sound of mountain rivers at midday.
I usually try and avoid books about writers. Or specifically works of fiction about writers of fiction. They can easily run dangerously self-aggrandizing or saccharine. You get this combo of O, my struggle! combined with something about the grand importance and essential nature of fiction — something I agree with completely but find suspect when delivered in the form of a writer constructing a clay model of themself.
(By contrast, I do love many books about books, from If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler to The Princess Bride to The Satanic Verses)
If you hadn’t guessed by now, The Swan Whisperer is a book about writing. Not just about writing, but formal creative writing classes. And not actually a book, but more a short story posing as one, about forty pages and illustrated.
The conceit here is that the narrator of the story is a South African creative writing teacher giving a lecture to her colleagues about an erstwhile student of hers who, on a trip to Amsterdam to snap his writer’s block, befriends the mysterious Swan Whisperer, an old man who descends to the canals every morning to commune with a legion of swans. The narrator goes on to explain that the student, Kasper, has been sending her cryptic letters, cassettes, and packages and excerpts of each are printed verbatim in the text.
It’s beautiful. The Swan Whisperer overcame any prejudices I had about books about writing. I’m usually not the type to sigh and wish if only this short tale were longer… but I did here. I wanted to continue, to hear more of Kasper’s secrets.
On the first page, Van Niekerk asks:
“What does one teach when one is a teacher of Creative Writing? The true? The good? The beautiful? Should one teach criticism, fantasy, or faith? What is the use of literature? What is its place on the greater canvas of human endeavours? And perhaps I should also ask: Can a story offer consolation?”
By the end of the story, I feel like maybe the answer is “Who knows?” or “Maybe it can’t possible do those things.” Maybe writing must instead be taught by winters abroad on frozen canals, falling in love with mute homeless men, savage history, love of fables, the sound of mountain rivers at midday.
February 8, 2017
'Een goed verhaal, zei Willem dikwijls, is 'als een bloeiende boomgaard die gevonden moet worden in de dichte nevelen van de taal'. Maar kan ik die in mijn eentje vinden? U moet mij helpen. Trek aan de riemen, gezellen, we moeten hem in één keer over de Styx varen!'
'Het scheppen van kunst is de enige betrouwbare zelfvertroosting, zei Willem-'
'Tja liever gek dan god.'
'Het scheppen van kunst is de enige betrouwbare zelfvertroosting, zei Willem-'
'Tja liever gek dan god.'
August 16, 2015
"Takjes, lover, stenen. Alles zwart-wit, leeg en kaal. Waar zijn de vogels, Schreuder, vroeg ik. Wilde hij iets zeggen? In het spleetje tussen zijn oogleden zag ik iets blinken. Ik bladerde terug en begon van voren af aan, en toen zag ik het: de vork van een combretum, klaar voor een gaai, zeven kepen in het zandsteen om een raaf te ontvangen, een strelitzia, met de vlaggen stok in het gleufwerk wachtend op een suikervogel. En ik zag schoorstenen en telegraafpalen die zich strekken in verwachting, en rietbossen en gras na het vertrek, een opstel in afwezigheid, vol stuwwind en glijstroom, en de speling van sprankelend licht. [...] Ik had Schreuders carrière helpen maken, maar zijn leven had ik vernietigd, nou ja, bijna vernietigd." (p. 157-158)
May 15, 2012
A beautifully written book. Four short stories that are interwoven much like the stories in Damon Galgut's In a Strange Room.
An extremely moving and rather dark look at the art and madness in a writer.
One of those books that you read a little of, and then need to put down in order to absorb and process what you've read.
I wish Marlene van Niekerk had been my professor when I studied Afrikaans.
An extremely moving and rather dark look at the art and madness in a writer.
One of those books that you read a little of, and then need to put down in order to absorb and process what you've read.
I wish Marlene van Niekerk had been my professor when I studied Afrikaans.
November 10, 2015
A wonderful fable about writing and translating complemented by drawing by William Kentridge. This small volume is a treasure, part of the amazing Cahier series. See my review for more: http://wp.me/p4GDHM-i9
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews