der volle Mond -
ein frisch gebackenes
weißes Brötchen.

the full moon -
a fresh-baked
white bread roll.


(evening barbeque at the Nickern Jugendbauernhof, Dresden)

Thanks to Angelika for correcting my German. You can read more about my trip to Dresden on Crafty Green Poet here and here and more to come!

The Languages I Speak (and some I Don't)

Nà totally made my day recently by telling me I write Italian very well and asking if I had studied it at University! I was very flattered, but no, I only studied it for two years at evening classes at the Institute for Applied Language Studies, in Edinburgh. I have worked hard extra to that in learning grammar at home and reading a lot in Italian. It helps that I enjoy a lot of Italian writers, especially Italo Calvino and Alessandro Barrico. I also read the Italian magazine Focus, which is a wonderfully bizarre magazine, full of articles about weird things. I watch a fair number of Italian films too (the Italian Film Festival starts this weekend!!!). I've found Italian much easier to learn than either German or French, both of which I studied at school. I learnt French for five years at school and have done little with it since, though I did a year of evening classes and sometimes read in French as well as watching a fair number of French films. My real problem with French is that I can't hear it very well! German I studied for three years in school but have always used it since, I've visited Germany more often than any other country and have several German friends, some of whom I even speak German with! German is hard work though, all those long words and endless sentences with the verbs at the end.... I use both German and Italian for work sometimes. I can understand Spanish quite well because its very similar to Italian, but I can't speak it, mostly for exactly the same reason.... I can speak a few phrases of Polish, as I was on an archeology dig over there once. I keep meaning to learn a bit more as there are so many Polish people over here now, but its a very difficult language and I don't expect to get beyond the very basics. Gaelic is a language so strange and incomprehensible (to make the present tense you use the future tense - how weird is that!) that I don't think I'll ever get past Hello, a fact not helped that whenever we visit 'Gaelic speaking' areas of Scotland, we never find anyone who speaks the language! I learnt some Chichewa when I was in Malawi and still occasionally come out with the odd 'pepani' (sorry) or zikomo (excuse me, thankyou).



So what languages do you speak and how do you use them?

Das Leben des Anderen

In der DDR, ein Stasi Offiziel nachspioniere ein Schriftsteller und seine Frau. Der Offiziel hatte sein Herz gefunden und hatte die Paar geholfen (aber in Geheimnis). Viele Deutsche sagen 'diese ist nicht die Wahrheit, solche ein Geschicht könnte nie in der DDR passiert habe.' Ich weiß sie haben recht. Aber ich fand es interesseante darüber zu denken - konnen wir uns ein Welt vorstellen, wo solche ein Geschichte möglich ist?

Es ist etwas wie das tolle Italiensiche Film 'Buongiorno, Buon Notte' - zu denken uber etwas besser ist das erste Schritt zu ein bessere Welt.

In communist East Germany, an official of the Stasi (the State Secret Police) is spying in a dramatist and his wife. The official discovers he has a heart and starts to help the couple in secret. Many German viewers have apparently said that the film is unrealistic, such a story would not have been possible under the communist regime. I know they are right about this. However for me the interesting thing about the film is can we imagine a World where such a story could happen in a repressive regime?

As in the wonderful Italian film 'Buongiorno, Buon Notte' the point is that thinking of a better world is the first step to making a better world.

M/other Tongues - bilingual poetry

Hier sind Gedichte von Adel Karasholi (Damaskus, Syrien geboren) und Dragica Rajcic (Split, Croatia geboren), die auf ihren zweiten Sprach Deutsch schrieben. Die Gedichte sind hier presentiert Deutsche an links und Englische Ubersetzung an rechts. Die Gedichte sind ubergesetzt auf English von Suhayl Saadi und Christopher Whyte, mit wörtliche Ubersetzungen von Ken Cockburn. Die Gedichte sind interessante und man kann hier viele Frage über Indentitat finden, wie hier in Rajcic’s Gedichte ODE AN DIE HAUSFRAU:

geometrie des morgensim virtuelen
vergesslichkeit schlüssel für
hummanevernichtung der
gedanken


Diese war ein Projekt von Scottish Poetry Library’s EPIC (European Poetry Information Centre). Nicht nur die Dichter kommen aus verschiedene sprachliche Erfahrunge aber auch die Ubersetzer (Suhal Saadi, Pakistanischer Abstammung; Christopher Whyte schriebe auch auf Gälisch). Ich fuhle das der Prjeckt war etwas zu kompliziert, weil Ken Cockburn ein gutes Ubersetzer von Gedichte ist und Christopher Whyte auch sprecht Deutsch!

This is a collection of poems by Adel Karasholi (born Damascus, Syria) and Dragica Rajcic (born Split, Croatia), who both come from different backgrounds and write in their second language, German. The poems are presented in this collection in German on the left and English translation on the right. The poems have been translated by Suhayl Saadi and Christopher Whyte, with Ken Cockburn offering literal translations. The poems are interesting and offer insights into questions around identity, such as this from Rajcic’s poem ODE TO A HOUSEWIFE:

geometry of the morning in virtual
forgetfulness a key for
humane extermination of
thoughts.

This publication is a project of the Scottish Poetry Library’s EPIC (European Poetry Information Centre). The intention being to bring together poets from different linguistic backgrounds with translators themselves from different linguistic backgrounds (Suhal Saadi was born in England to Pakistani parents, Christopher Whyte writes in Gaelic as well as English). I can’t help feeling though that the project was over-complicated given that fact that Ken Cockburn, who provided the literal translations, is a sensitive and competent poetic translator and by the fact that Christopher Whyte speaks German.

Free copies of M/other Tongues are available from the Scottish Poetry Library, Canongate, Edinburgh.

The Night Begins with a Question - Poetry from Austria

Gestern habe ich an der Scottish Poetry Library, ein Vorlesung von Gedichte aus Oesterreich gehoert. Dichterin Evelyn Schlag, Dichter Peter Waterhouse und Redakteur Iain Galbraith hatten 'The Night Begins with a Question' diskutiert und Gedicht davon vorgelesen. Diese ist ein Buch von 25 Gedichte von verschiedene Gedichte aus Oesterreich, auf Deutsch und in English Ubersetzung. Es war ganz interessant andere Dichter su finden aus Oesterreich. Ehe, hat ich nur die wondershoene Gedichte von Ingeborg Bachman gelesen. Die Gedichte waren interessantes, in verschiedene Stile. Ich find es schwerig vollig Gedichte auf Deutsch in Vorleseung zu verstehen (weil ich langsamer auf Deutsch denken!) und immer ist etwas in Ubersetzung verloren. Trotzdem war es eine tolle Vorlesung und es ist ein interessantes Buch.

Last night I was at the Scottish Poetry Library for a reading of Austrian poetry. The poets Evelyn Schlag and Peter Waterhouse and the editor Iain Galbraith had discussed and read poetry from 'The Night Begins with a Question' a new anthology of 25 Austrian poems in German with English translation. The poems here were interessting and covered a variety of styles. and I enjoyed finding some new Austrian poets, as previously I had only ever read the wonderful poetry of Ingeborg Bachman. I find it difficult to follow poetry read aloud in German (because i think pretty slowly in German!) and I think there is always something lost in the translation of poetry. It was however an excellent evening and it's an interesting anthology.


The Night Begins With a Question is a new anthology of 25 Austrian poems, one each from the years 1978 to 2002, published by the Scottish Poetry Library in association with Carcanet Press. Supported by the Scottish Arts Council and the Austrian Cultural Forum

Ingeborg Bachmann

I've just finished reading 'Die Gestundete Zeit' a collection of poetry from the Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann (1926 - 1973). Her poetry is beautifully written, dark and melancholy and a little too difficult for me always to fully appreciate it in the original German. I'm glad to see that there are at least two volumes available in English:

Darkness Spoken: Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann, 2005 (trans. by Peter Filkins)
Last Living Words: The Ingeborg Bachmann Reader, 2006 (trans. by Lilian Friedberg)

though some of her work strikes me as untranslateable. Certainly when I attempted to translate her poem Autumn Manoeuvers I was not at all happy with the result. I am always reluctant to create a 'new poem' when translating and yet I couldn't produce anything that sounded good in English while remaining faithful to Bachmann's original.

I would definitely recommend looking out for her work - in the German original if possible or in translation.

Das Schloß - Franz Kafka

Ich lese jetzt Das Schloß auf Deutsch!! Einige Deutsche haben mir gesagt Kafka wäre zu schwerig für mich auf Deutsch zu verstehen. Find ich aber, daß Kafka nicht ganz kompliziert beschrieben hat. Mit Kafka, sind es immer die Ideen die kompliziert sind. Egal in Deutsch oder English. So die Wörter sind nicht das Problem. Das Problem ist was hinter die Wörter liegt. Und das ist manchmal fremd und kompliziert..... Glückerlicherweise sind es viele websites über Kafka:

http://www.xlibris.de/Autoren/Kafka/Interpretationen/Schloss.htm
http://www.dieterwunderlich.eu/Kafka_schloss.htm
http://www.franz-kafka.net/das-schloss/

I'm reading Kafka's The Castle at the minute - in German! Some native German speakers had said to me that Kafka would be too difficult for me to read in German. However, Kafka didn't use particularly complicated language, rather it's the ideas that are complicated - in German or English! So the words aren't the problem. The problem is what lies behind the words, and that is sometimes strange and complicated. Luckily there are some helpful websites to help the reader understand Kafka:

http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11503
http://www.answers.com/topic/the-castle-1