poetry in translation and life - Live

During the last week I have been translating poetry by Rose Vandewalle., by Sinzo Aanza., proofreading a Dutch - German translation by Annie Reniers, so keeping  up the blog was on the back burner. Too many words, too many languages, all the layers of meaning and the possibilities.... Yet tomorrow in Brussels I will be closing a European poetry reading. The theme is multi-linguism. All poets will be reading in their own language and some will also read translations. Since in Traces/Sporen, produced by world-internet-books. I wrote part of the poetry in Dutch and part in English the organizer wanted to talk about about writing in two languages. The interview at the start will be in French, she will read the Dutch poems she has chosen from the book and I will read in English. It is exciting and I look forward to this evening. I am curious about the other poets, the other languages and how the atmosphere will be. The reading starts at 7 30 pm: Oudergemlaan 63, 1040 Brussels (Bureau de Liaison Europe-Brussels, Belgium).  May be we'll meet there.

Broomstick Revolution

Grandma Edna tells us:
*
“WE NEED CHANGES in this world,
really big BIG changes.
I’m prayin’ they’ll be peaceable changes,
not violent and bloody ones.
I’d like to see a peaceable revolution,
a revolution of broomsticks instead o’ guns.
Call it a Broomstick Revolution.
*
That’s right.
We the People—
AND ESPECIALLY US WOMEN!—
pick up our broomsticks
and work together to Sweep Injustice Out!
~
YOU CAN’T JOIN the Broomstick Revolution.
You’re already PART of it
if you believe in peace and Mother Earth
and respect for all living things.
~
The Broomstick Revolution is NOT an organization.
The Broomstick Revolution is inside of each of us,
in every beating heart of humankind,
a sacred place where we listen to the Creator
and follow Creator’s Instructions
to sweep out injustice and violence.
~
NEVER raise a broom in violence.
Your broomstick is a symbol of PEACE.
Peace is our purpose.
Peace is our method.
Peace is our philosophy.
Peace is our Goal.
ONLY PEACE WILL BE EFFECTIVE!
~
MAKE PEACE YOUR
CENTRAL THOUGHT!
~
I’D LIKE TO SEE THAT ‘60’S PEACE SYMBOL
painted on the broom-heads.
Then plant’m like FLOWERS OF PEACE
in your front yards, on streetcorners,
in front o’ stores and schools and churches and banks.
Plant’m by the millions. When they rip’ m out, plant’m again!
AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!
Ain’t no end to how many agains there can be!
~
Love all people, even--especially--your 'enemies'.
We want to save the world, not destroy it.
Let everyone—even the One Percent—be included!
~
Some advice: Stay out of big crowds
that are easily turned into mobs.
They’re waitin’ for mobs.
Work alone or in small groups,
groups of Leaders.
There are no followers
in the Broomstick Revolution.
We are ALL LEADERS!
TELL’M GRANDMA EDNA TOLD YOU SO!

No more bombing of civilians

My grandfather collected stamps: big books with old stamps, but also a smaller one with stamps emitted by the United Nations. So I knew about Palestine and Israel when I was about seven years old. I have always worked for peace, believing in negotiations. A few days ago Rabbi Alissa Wise remarked that the current assault on Gaza is being paid for by the blank check from the US government to the Israeli military. So basically all US citizens pay for bombing citizens in Gaza. Bombing citizens who ever does it morally wrong. Unacceptable. It is also an infringement on human rights of the civilian victims. So no more tax dollars for consistently violating human rights. Gaza has one and half million people living on a very small area: It is probably the largest open air prison, about 140 square miles. There are regular food shortages, people loose hope, children are stressed and hungry. 

Some 10% of children under five in the Gaza Strip have had their growth stunted due to prolonged exposure to malnutrition. "Stunting (chronic malnutrition) is not improving and may be deteriorating," concluded the World Health Organisation in May of this year. For those of you who understand German I post an interview with Gunter Grass.

So: Please no more killing of children. A Flander's Pen colleague took too many pictures of these gruesome after the first attack. I only post one. One kid who might survive in that first night 25 children died or were severely wounded.

Drones - Text from Amnesty USA

Today I bring the thoughtful text of Amnesty USA concerning drones, a subject which has since the beginning bothered me. It seems clean and clear but it kills. Remember: Thou shallt not kill.

Amnesty USA's text:

I am writing to urge you to take immediate steps to bring the United States government's policies on the use of armed drones, and other such "targeted killings" or "signature strikes", in line with US obligations under international human rights law and, in the very limited circumstances where it also applies, international humanitarian law.

What has already been publicly revealed about these policies and practices is enough to conclude that the current US approach is unlawful, violating the fundamental human right of anyone, wherever in the world they may be found, not to be arbitrarily deprived of his or her life. However, it is clear that many details about the legal and factual underpinnings for both the policies and for particular killings are still being kept secret. This would include the alleged 2010 classified Department of Justice (Office of Legal Counsel) memorandum reported to give the legal justification for the killing of US citizens without trial in certain circumstances, such as occurred in the case of Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in September 2011.

We in the public may not yet know all the individual names or identities of the people who the US government has killed under these policies, but we do know some things more generally about them. We know that among those killed were some who were essentially accused in secret of crimes or other wrongdoing but in respect of whom no efforts were made to bring them to justice in a court of law. We know that there were others about whom the government had no specific information but who may simply have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. We know that among those killed have been men of different ages, women, and children. We also know that every one of the people the government has killed, whoever they were and whatever they may have been believed to have done, had the right not to be arbitrarily deprived of his or her life. International human rights standards define what is and is not an arbitrary deprivation of life. Outside of specific recognized zones of armed conflict, states must comply with law enforcement standards. The integrity of the international system for protection of human rights depends in no small part on states respecting the fundamental principle that the more permissive targeting rules under the laws of war apply only within such zones of armed conflict.

While I recognize that some of the killings in question, if conducted in the context of specific recognized zones of armed conflict may not be in violation of international human rights or international humanitarian law, current US policies appear also to permit extrajudicial executions in violation of international human rights law, virtually anywhere in the world. Among the particular concerns of Amnesty International are:

- the government's continued reliance on a "global war" legal theory that treats the entire world as a battlefield between the USA and armed groups, on which lethal force may potentially be used virtually anywhere at any time without regard to human rights standards;

- the administration's invocation of the right to use force in self-defence to justify the deliberate killing of virtually anyone suspected of involvement of any kind in relation to a range of armed groups and/or terrorism against the USA, particularly through the adoption of a radical re-interpretation of the concept of "imminence";

- reports that a "guilty until proven innocent" approach is taken to military-age males who are killed by a strike, even if there is no specific evidence that they were directly participating in hostilities in a specific armed conflict;

- the fact that key factual and legal details of the killing programme remain shrouded in secrecy.

These aspects of US policy and practice are not only of concern in their own right: they also weaken the credibility of the USA as an advocate for respect for human rights by other states; they set dangerous precedents that other states may exploit to avoid responsibility for their own unlawful killings; and if unchecked there is a real risk that the US "global war" doctrine will further corrode the foundations of the international framework for protection of human rights. There has also been widespread speculation that current US policies and practices with respect to such killings may inadvertently be building support for the very armed groups and terror attacks that US officials say provide its justification.

I call on you to

- Ensure that the US refrains from all unlawful use of lethal force, including against individuals suspected of terrorism.

- Ensure maximum effort by the US, in cooperation with other states, to ensure that those responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the USA, and for planning or carrying out similar such attacks anywhere in the world, are brought to justice for their crimes in fair and public trials without recourse to the death penalty.

- Disclose further legal and factual details about US policy and practices for so-called 'targeted killings', 'signature strikes', and "Terrorist Attack Disruption Strikes", including the alleged 2010 classified Department of Justice (Office of Legal Counsel) memorandum reported to give the legal justification for the killing of US citizens without trial in certain circumstances, such as occurred in the case of Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in September 2011.

- End claims that the USA is authorized by international law to use lethal force anywhere in the world under the theory that it is involved in a 'global war' against al-Qa'ida and other armed groups and individuals.

- Recognize the application of international human rights law to all US counter-terrorism operations including those outside US territory.

- Bring US policies and practices on the use of lethal force in counter-terrorism operations in line with the USA's international human rights obligations, particularly, by:

- Ensuring that any use of lethal force outside of specific recognized zones of armed conflict complies fully with the USA's obligations under international human rights law, including by limiting the use of force in accordance with international human rights standards for the use of force in law enforcement;

 - Ensuring that any use of lethal force within a specific recognized zone of armed conflict complies fully with the USA's obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law, including by recognizing and respecting the rule that if there is doubt as to whether a person is a civilian, the person is to be considered a civilian.

- Ensuring independent and impartial investigations in all cases of alleged extrajudicial executions or other unlawful killings, respect for the rights of family members of those killed, and effective redress and remedy where killings are found to have been unlawful.

Iraqi Ghosts

 How to express the reality of war? The three young Iraqi artists each have survived three wars. That is nine wars right here, says one of the actors. True enough. There are as many wars as there are participants, victims and survivors, as many wars as people have to live true them. The play is disquieting, loud, funny, clashing, a confrontation with what we have only seen or heard in the media. It is the personal experience of the three Iraqi actors which informs this play. The female roles are performed by Flemish/German actresses. The audience is eased into the drama of war through the first scene with the actors wearing animal masks, animals as victims of war too. I particularly like that each scene was introduced and 'framed', explained and thus creating expectations as to what is to come and how long the particular scene will take.

The vivid images created on the scene, incorporating elements of home - oriental carpets, couscous, food, projected film - are all elements of the questions raised: What is war? How do people live in times of war? The three main images which follow are: The day before the war, marked by fear, tension and preparing for what one cannot prepare. The next scene is the day after the war when distrust reigns, when old friends no longer dare to shake hands. Who is a friend anyway and who is foe? The third day there is war. One of the actresses states: I feel alive, all worries have been lifted, all the rest is unimportant. Now it is all about survival. The performance, albeit very personal, is reaching for a universal almost physical language. In the play language plays a main part: the two actresses speak in German, English and Dutch and a few times almost grammolo, often as a consecutive rendering of the texts spoken in Farsi. To me that was mesmerising. Iraqi Ghosts is a play by Mokhallad Rasem in cooperation and improvisation with the actors Duraid Abba, Sarah Eisa, Ahmed Khaled, Julia Clever.
Remember: Peace is the way.

Poetry in the park in Hoboken

 It was a wonderful afternoon: Easy talk among like minded friends, good poetry read. The choice of musicians grand. Left, poets listening to poets reading. Right Roger Nupie and Vera Alexander Beerten. Roger read naughty homo erotic poetry, lighthearted and fun. Vera read a cycle of poems about 34 children drowning on a Friday night during the war. Chilling to the bone. The words smuggled in all had to do with caring for one or other issue or being moved by something. The audience was wonderful participating in the exchange with poets: looking up at the leaves in the dappled light, repeating words when a poet asked them to...

 

It was all great stuff. The extra appearance of Iron Maiden lead singer Blaze Bayley was a pleasant surprise. Many reasons to be grateful.

No war with Iran

The poem by Fred Schywek in German and in English is the transformation by a younger poetry generation poet of the controversial long poem by Gunter Grass published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the largest quality paper in Germany and in La Republica (Italy). In this political poem Günter Grass speaks against the fact that the Israeli government claims the right for a first atomic strike against Iran. Source Tagesschau.

 *

Warum why

Warum

schweige ich

verschweige

lang

was offensichtlich

im Planspiel

geübt

an deren Ende

als Lebende

wir allenfalls

Fußnuß

Why why

Why

do I keep silent

hush up

a long time

what obviously

has been practiced

in a planning game

at the end of which

living creatures

we certainly

footnut

poetry day in den Hopsack

 Eight poets were invited to read in den Hopsack by Frank De Vos, master of ceremony for the evening. Some people I knew well and their work, like Roger Nupie with serious poetry, poetry inspired by spirituals- rather chilling what he did with those in word and performance and lighthearted verse.

Here Frank listening attentively after having read a poem by the Burmese poet Zargana, recently released from a 39 year prison sentence for helping  the people after the flood when the government  did nothing to alleviate their suffering. Luckily he didn't have to do the full time. Also other poets were released, so maybe there is hope at the horizon...

 Poets are not overly romantic souls who don't ware about the fate of the world. So at the end the words were spoken: Overigens ben ik van mening  dat de NAVO afgeschaft moet worden, in English: Furthermore I am of the opinion that NATO has to be abolished.

Here the next picture is German poet Fred Schywek, an excellent performer with great poetry, the translations in Dutch were read by Annmarie Sauer who also performed.

Maris Bayar in frivolous reds, read about  the sea, her fascination and love for it shone through

José Meyvis was the most playful poet even doing a Mahler concerto on her own on stage and perverting a recipe to a poem...

Also Richard Foqué, who writes in Dutch and English, and Erik Vandenwijngaerden did well Richard with some poems from Late Landscape and Erik with U-gedichten: You-poems.

Thank you all people from den Hopsack, always a nice crowd and good audience.

© sms:foto duisburg/rhein 2012

The Festival

Last Saturday was the day filled with beauty and warmth, words whispered and shouted, poets of the page and great performers. We worked in 4 languages and the audience got it. We had a great crowd, appreciative and warm. We found help for letting people in, for the bar, for a bookstand of the authors. There was a table  of the writers in prison comittee and a Free Leonard Peltier flag. The poets who were featured alone read well and the groups that created a performance created a ballance that ballanced and lead to enjoyment and thoughtfulness. The anti war and pro peace section was an imposing statement in its beauty and strength.

The next day two of our invited  poets- devorah major and Olivier Cousin- were invited to another literature festival. They didn't think about the translation, so we had to pick up the slack of others, which we gladly did for our two poet friends. And then  on monday night there was a small Barbershop reading which probably will evolve into something bigger. Devorah enjoyed the old countryside hotel, near the Rhine and we filmed her speaking, performing some poems. Then  The next day we dropped her of  at the airport and she is now in Sarajevo at a Festival.

You'll find the slideshow and many more items at world-internet-books.com

Now the administative stuff has to be taken care of and the books with the great poetry in several languages have to be produced.

Susan Birkeland was honored end remembered... Her poem was read by Fred Schywek and myself in 

German and Dutch.