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Conflict, representation, interpretation – the truth lied The poetic concept “taalskadeloosstelling” (disempowerment of speech) in a poem by T.T. Cloete can be related to a poetic procédè in another of his poems, namely “Foto Boerevegters” from the volume Driepas (1989: 111). In this poem the relativity of conflict is a main theme. The telescoping of contexts and perspectives reveals more fundamental conflicts than the superficial theme of a specified historical conflict. A framed representation (a photograph) of a political event represents a retrogressive perspective that presupposes a more comprehensive context. Such a double perspective degrades and relativizes the representation to the level of reconstructed jigsaw pictures on paper. Discrepancies between appearance and intention, or surface and depth structures are unmasked at a linguistic level. In contrast with the lies of representation, the discourse of the poem exceeds its own constraints. This activates the establishment of relationships that render comment from an enlarged perspective. The framework of a local historical context is thus broken through and momentarily truth and lie are juxtaposed.