Prof Hein Willemse of the Department of Afrikaans at the University of Pretoria delivered the annual NP van Wyk Louw memorial lecture at the University of Johannesburg on Thursday, 8 September.

The memorial lecture was instituted in 1972, and each year a scholar is invited to investigate an aspect of Louw's work. This year, Prof Willemse researched the way in which poet Adam Small viewed Louw. Prof Willemse took Small's admiration for Louw's work as point of departure and focussed inter alia on the way in which Small translated Louw's work into English – specifically how Small strived to introduce selective aspects of Louw's influential thoughts to a wider audience.

With the lecture, Prof Willemse paid tribute to both influential poets (Louw and Small). In the process he succeeded in once again making aspects of Louw's thoughts relevant to the current situation in our country and to investigate the possibilities they offer us today. In addition, the lecture was an interesting contribution to the discourse on 'cultural translation'.