Abstract
Marlene van Niekerk's second novel, Agaat, ends in aporia with frame narrator, Jakkie, at a interval (692). The closing paragraphs of novel include a cryptic extract from a Danish poem by Nis Petersen (1897-1943) entitled Natteregn (Night Rain), which describes culmination of a gentle breeze rising up into fanfarer / til natten abenbarer [. . .] (fanfare / until night reveals [. . .]) (692). What exactly night will reveal remains a mystery, as Jakkie offers no revelation. He speaks of the fantasy of a song, an alternative reply (to mother-daughter narrative of Milla and Agaat), and mentions an Aeolian and Des Knaben Wunderhorn (symbols of creative inspiration) (4, 8, 692). But reader is left waiting in suspense with only his suggestions of divine afflatus, implicit in Aeolian and Natteregn extract. In end he offers no song or symphony. However, before Jakkie closes his eyes to fall asleep on plane his final thoughts are [p]lectrum and harp (692), suggesting possibility of creative activity, albeit frozen and forestalled. In this way, Agaat's ending is a prelude to Van Niekerk's third novel, Memorandum: A Story with Paintings. Jakkie's fantasies of nocturnal revelation, musical composition and exercising creative arts are realised in Memorandum, and crystallised in final prose poem of novel: Passacaglia. This essay focuses on ending of Memorandum.
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