Introductory word by Johannes Feest
Reading with the authors Inge Buck and Madjid Mohit,
on 19.3. 2023 at the Parkhotel Bremen
"At the same time, the lyrical dialogue between the poems by Madjid Mohit and Inge Buck stands in a field of tension between the Western and Eastern worlds, between strangeness and familiarity, closeness and distance, connoted by one's own cultural and biographical experiences. An adventure of encounter in word, text and writing.”
That's what the press release says. It's hard to describe what we're looking at here in more detail. But that's just where the actual work on the text begins. I have limited myself to one poem for the given occasion. It is quoted in the title of today's event, comes from Madjid Mohit and begins with the words
“The world is a September day as today”. So it's about a specific day when the world appears like this. And probably also about a certain place. “The sun tries hard to get through the thick clouds”. So we're probably in Bremen and that's it one the pole of intercultural exchange.
The poem by Inge Buck printed opposite also fits in with this:
"Already I can feel the smell of falling leaves, already the turf is bare".
This is reminiscent of an earlier poem by Inge Buck called "Septemberkraut", which is about the autumn storms. But why always September? We are finally in March. And how does that seem to the Persian readers?
They could get the idea that there are mainly such September days in Bremen. To prove otherwise, they would have to have the Persian version of another volume of poetry by Inge Buck at hand, in which "pale green of the meadows in March light“ the speech” is and also of the "The aimlessness of a summer day, the patience of a cactus flower, the timelessness of an ant, the reliability of the shadow". Pure nature
One could also speculate whether Madjid Mohid was inspired by Inge Buck's poems. Which he has repeatedly printed since 1999. But his own poem "Septembertag today" leaves nature poetry with the final sentence. This reads: "and we don't read the news anymore".
Potzblitz, par bleu! What kind of cold breeze is coming towards us from the sunny Orient? Apparently it's about the unbearable quantity of bad news we are showered with every day: Corona deaths, arms deliveries, house demolitions, executions, earthquakes. Such poetry in the west-east dialogue has it all and the September day still has an effect in March and far beyond Bremen.
This dialogue refers, as discreetly as it does clearly, to the great publishing work that Madjid Mohit has built up in Bremen over the past 25 years. He had famous authors translated from Persian and Arabic. But he also brought a large number of authors who are not yet so well known in this country closer to a German audience. And he has increasingly published bilingual editions in which examples of German poetry are conveyed to the Orient and vice versa. All of this is highly topical.
I could close with that if something hadn't happened between September and March that could have strengthened and perpetuated this fruitful type of dialogue. By that I mean an association that came together in December. She has the big name "West-east divan. intercultural exchange” and its chairperson is Inge Buck. The purpose of the undertaking is that this exchange is promoted and presented appropriately, privately and by the state, to the best of our ability. All of you, dear listeners, are already invited to take a seat on this divan soon.
