I saw your mother by Jeremy Cronin
(Jeremy Cronin was a member of the South African Communist Party. He was arrested and send to jail. He spend some time on Robben Island. This poem is about his wife’s death while he was in prison.)
1.
I saw your mother
2.
with two guards
3.
through a glass plate
4.
for one quarter hour
5.
on the day that you died
6.
‘Extra visit, special favour’
7.
I was told, and warned
8.
“The visit will be stopped
9.
if politics is discussed.
10.
Verstaan – understand!?’
11.
on the day that you died
12.
I couldn’t place
13.
my arm around her,
14.
around your mother
15.
when she sobbed
16.
Fifteen minutes up
17.
I was led
18.
back to the workshop
19.
Your death, my wife,
20.
one crime they managed
21.
not to perpetrate
22.
on the day that you died
Line 1&2
I saw your mother
With two guards
Jeremy is talking to his wife. He tells his departed wife that he saw her mother in prison.
She was between two guards. This old lady needed the presence of two guards.
It gives you a sense of how strict they were at the prison and that the Apartheid government trusted no one.
Line 3-5
Through a glass plate
For one quarter hour
On the day that you died

He tells his wife that he saw his mother-in-law through the glass plate that was normally between visitors and prisoners.
He could only see her for 15 minutes. Normally you were allowed one visit per month for half an hour.
He won’t forget it, because it was on the day that his wife died according to him.
Line 6-9
‘Extra visit, special favour’
I was told, and warned
‘The visit will be stopped if politics is discussed.
Extra visit: prisoners were only allowed one visit per month for half an hour. This visit was not one that Jeremy Cronin expected.
Special favour: The prison authorities make it clear to the poet that they are doing him a favour by allowing this visit. This is almost sarcasm because the news that the poet is going to receive will take everything special out of this visit.
The visit will be stopped if they discussed politics: They were all political prisoners. All their conversations and correspondence with the outside world were meticulously monitored. The idea of keeping the people in prison were to get them away from organising or taking part in political events.
Line 10-11
Verstaan – understand!?’ on the day that you died
Verstaan – understand!?: Afrikaans is used because Afrikaans was labelled as the language of the oppressor. It is therefore suitable that the prison guard would speak the language of the government he works for.
The word “Verstaan” also places the poem in context. You know that the poem is set in
South Africa. Because the language is Afrikaans and used by the prison guard you may freely assume that the action takes place during the Apartheid years. This is confirmed by the fact that politics may not be discussed.
Note the repetition of the line: on the day that you died. This emphasises how horrible the news was for the poet.
Line 12-15
I couldn’t place my arem around her, around your mother when she sobbed

His mother-in-law came to inform him about her daughter’s death. She was sad and cried.
Ironically the poet wants to comfort his mother-in-law. He should be the one to be comforted because he hears the news for the first time.
He could not place his arm around his mother-in-law because there was a window between them.
The poet does not inform us about his feelings.
Line 16-18
Fifteen minutes up
I was led back to the workshop
Despite the horrible news he received, the prison authorities stuck to exactly fifteen minutes.
He was led back to the workshop after he received the news.
Line 19-22
Your death, my wife, one crime they managed not to perpetrate on the day that you died.
He makes a statement at the end of the poem. He can not blame the government for his wife’s death. Although the government committed many crimes against the people of
South Africa, the government did not kill his wife.
You can however feel bitter about the way this situation was handled by the prison authorities. This is implied.
The repetition of “on the day that you died” is ironic. This was not the day his wife died.
He only received news of her death on this day but for him it became the day that she died.
How did your wife die, Jeremy?
Jeremy:
My wife died of a brain tumour. I was sentenced in September of ’76, so I was entitled to a half-hour visit once a month, and I saw Anne Marie for about 4 or 5 months and then…apparently she thought she was having a nervous breakdown, so she became quite disorientated and was having splitting headaches and so forth and was diagnosed as having a brain tumour, which I didn’t know about, because we hadn’t met, and the first I knew was when her mother cam in to say she was going in for an operation and she basically didn’t survive the operation. So that was in March of ’77, so it was very early on into the sentence. It was obviously very traumatic.