Joan Hambidge has published over 25 collections of poetry. Her work uses the magnifying lense of poetry to dissect, examine and recompose the material of her own life and work, and in so doing, explores ideas and issues central to our understanding of language and meaning. The poems selected for translation in this compilation offer insights into her views across a spectrum of four categories: city life; love and family; ars poetica; and time and eternity. The Coroner’s Wife offers English readers the unique opportunity to experience a prolific and renowned Afrikaans poet in their own language. Translations have been sensively rendered by wellknown poets, Charl JF Cilliers, Johann de Lange, Jo Nel and Douglas Reid Skinner.