Based on the poem Nirvana, by iconic poet Breyten Breytenbach, the siblings PC Janse van Rensburg and Anni Snyman’s meditative piece rests in the beautiful Jan Marais Nature Reserve. When the artists came across the stump of the fallen tree on the lawn, they saw it as resembling a head, and the trunk and branches the limbs of a person (a body-tree). They have made this resemblance visible by sculpting a head and hands in thick wire and metal panels that are anchored in the wood and the ground.

NIRVANA

Breyten Breytenbach

toe het gautama boeddha onder ’n boom

gaan sit en gesê: ek

sal van hier nie opstaan voordat ek

nie my ek

opgeëet het nie

en teen die aand van die soveelste dag

was die bodhiboom oordek van rooi vye

en hy het opgestaan en die lug geliefkoos

en blomme in die aarde se hare gesteek

en die water gesoen en

gelag vir die weerkaatsing van sy gesig

sodat sy wange nat was

then Gautama boeddha went to sit

under a tree and said: I

will not get up from here before I

have eaten my

entire I

and in the evening of so many days

the bodhi tree was covered with red figs

and he rose and caressed the sky

and inserted flowers in the earth’s hair

he kissed the water

and laughed at the reflection of his face

until his cheeks were wet

Ingqibeko eyiparadesi kubuthixo eyiNirvana

Ke ngoko uGautama Boeddha ongcwele

Wayokuhlala phantsi komthi wathi:

Andisayi kuphakama apha

Phambi kokuba ndigqibe ukutya.

Yaye ngokuhlwa kweentsuku ezininzi

Umthi ongcwele oyibhodi

Ugqunywe ngamakhiwane abomvu

Waza waphakama waphulula isibhakabhaka

Waza wafaka iintyatyambo

Kwiinwele zomhlaba wawaphuza amanzi

Waza wawuhleka umfanekiso wobuso bakhe/

Waqhubeka ukuwukuhleka

Umfanekiso wobuso bakhe

Zade izidlele zakhe zamanzi