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M/Other Tongues, a poetry event which took place at the Scottish Poetry Library from 28 February to 2 March 2002, brought to Scotland two poets writing in German although it is not their mother tongue: Adel Karascholi from Syria, who has lived in Leipzig since the early '60s, and Dragica Rajčić from Croatia, who has lived in Switzerland since the outbreak of war in the former Yugoslavia.

They were paired with two Scottish poets who have also lived between two languages and/or cultures: Suhayl Saadi of Pakistani/Afghani descent who lives in Glasgow, and Christopher Whyte, of Irish descent, who writes in Scottish Gaelic and lives in Edinburgh.

› Find out more about this event

The poets and poems

Adel Karasholi

Adel Karasholi, born in 1936 in Damascus, was forced to flee Syria in 1959 when the Arab Writers’ Association, of which he was the youngest member, was proscribed. He settled in Leipzig in 1961 where he completed a PhD on Brechtian theatre. He was awarded the Chamisso Prize in 1992.

Umarming der Meridiane / Embrace of the Meridians
Ugarit / Ugarit
Translated by Suhayl Saadi

› Read about Suhayl Saadi in Poets' A-Z

Dragica Rajčić

Rajcic

Born in Croatia in 1959, Dragica Rajčić emigrated to Switzerland in 1978. Ten years later she returned to Croatia, where she worked as a journalist. On the outbreak of war in 1991 she fled with her children to Switzerland, where she now lives and works as a professional writer.

Ein Haus, nirgends / A house, nowhere
In-sich-gehen / Self-exploration
Translated by Christopher Whyte

› Read about Christopher Whyte in Poets' A-Z

Translating poets

M/Other Tongues

Adel Karasholi

Dragica Rajčić

Adel Karasholi

Umarming der Meridiane

Embrace of the Meridians

Hin und her
Her und hin

Wo bin ich zu Haus

In zwei Sprachen bildet sich der Satz
In zwei Welten greifen die Hände
Im Traum spricht in Deutsch mit mir die Mutter
In Arabisch mein sächsisch Weib
Von Meridian zu Meridian
Leichtfüßig springen meine Träume
Weiten sich aus meines Baumes Zweige
Und jede Blüte trägt die Tätowierung
Alvertrauter Sonnenkarawanen
Die durchpulsen meines Baumes Adern

Ach
Meridiane ihr
Zweige von eichen und
Von Olivenbäumen
Umarmt euch fester
Und fester
In mir

Back and forth
Back and forth

Where am I at home?

In two languages, the sentence forms
From two worlds, the hands gather
In dream, my mother speaks with me in Deutsch
My Saxon wife, in Arabic
From meridian to meridian
With winged feet, my visions leap
And spring from the branches of my sapling
Each blossom bears the tattoo
Of sand-traced sun caravans
Which flow up through my tree’s limbs

O
Meridians you
Branches
Oak and olive
Embrace each other tightly
And more tightly yet
In me.

translation into English © Suhayl Saadi 2002

Ugarit

Gewiß
Ein Stein überdauert
Uns
Die nicht einmal natürlichen
Todes gewiß sind

Doch nur
In uns
Überlebt die Geschichte
Dieses Steins die Hand
Die ihn gehaun
Zu Tempeln

Und zu Staub

Sein Tod geht
Durch uns hindurch
Ins Leben
Überlistet von unserer
Vorstellungslist

It is written
A stone outlasts
Us
Who are not even certain of a
Natural death

Yet solely
In us
Survives the history
Of this stone the hand
That clove it
Into temples

And to dust

Its death ascends
Straight through us
Into life
Outwitted by our
Imagination’s wit

Dragica Rajčić

Ein Haus, nirgends	A house, nowhere
wenn stück für stück glaube von Wortern herunter fehlt was mache ich da ich sammle Silben baue Ihnen ein haus, nirgends	when bit by bit faith seeps away from under words what am I doing there what am I doing here gathering syllables building them a house, nowhere
© Dragica Rajčić from Post bellum: Gedichte (Zürich: Ed. 8, 2000)	translation into English © Christopher Whyte 2002

In-sich-gehen	Self-exploration
Meine Ziege sind geschachtet auf dem Feur getrocknet verseist in langen Winterabenden Meine Pfohlen ist Pferd geworden jeden Tag lasten getragen gemezget für Italiener verspeist in Trieste Meine Geburtshaus ist zussamengebrochen hufen graue Steine In namenlossem Dorf in Dalmatien Meine Oma schlefft dritte reihe links unten Zweigen und Rabenstock neben Opa und Ihren sieben frü ausgehungerten Kindern. Meine Schultasche ist verloren mit inhalt in Serbocroatische sprache bedoutunsgloss.	My goats have been slaughtered smoked above the fire eaten on long winter evenings My foal became a horse carries loads every day butchered for Italians eaten in Trieste The house where I was born has fallen apart heaped up grey stones in a nameless village in Dalmatia My granny sleeps third row on the left amongst goats and vines next to Grandad and the seven children dead from hunger. I lost my schoolbag with its Serbo-Croatian books who cares.
© Dragica Rajčić from Halbgedichte einer Gastfrau (Zürich: Eco, 1994)	translation into English © Christopher Whyte 2002

More about this event

M/Other Tongues, which took place at the SPL from 28 February to 2 March, brought to Scotland two poets writing in German although it is not their mother tongue: Adel Karasholi (b. 1936) from Syria who has lived in Leipzig since the early '60s, and Dragica Rajčić (b. 1959) from Croatia who has lived in Switzerland since the outbreak of war in the former Yugoslavia. They were paired with two Scottish poets who have also lived between two languages and/or cultures: Suhayl Saadi (b. 1962) of Pakistani/Afghani descent who lives in Glasgow, and Christopher Whyte (b. 1953) of Irish descent who writes in Scottish Gaelic and lives in Edinburgh. Suhayl, working from literal versions prepared by myself, worked with Adel, their sharing of an Islamic cultural background if not a common language leading to many points of contact. Christopher, who has both German and Croatian, worked with Dragica, a more difficult process given Dragica's discomfort with the process of seeing her work translated for the first time, but fruitful nonetheless.

Each of the poets approached the language of their poetry from a different direction. Suhayl described hearing Urdu spoken in his family, without being able to speak it fluently himself. Christopher spoke of his choice of writing in Gaelic as an act of partial recompense for the suffering endured by the Scottish and Irish Gaelic communities. Dragica has written in Croatian, but feels "the freedom of a fool, when writing in German... in German I'm at a distance". Adel's journey from affluence and early literary success in Syria to exile, ended up, through a chance meeting, in Leipzig in East Germany in 1961, where he has lived and worked ever since, writing in German in order to have an audience for his work. Dragica quoted Mayakovsky, who wrote that "there is nothing sadder than a Bulgarian poet in Marseille", adding that a painter or a musician can make and present their art anywhere, but a poet works in language and needs a language community to work within and/or for. Christopher, in contrast, quoted an epigraph from Marina Tsvetayava's last book, taken from Montaigne, saying that for him one interested reader is enough: Tsvetayeva added, "for me, not even one".

While in Scotland however, the poets did find attentive audiences for their work. Adel read at the Goethe-Institut in Glasgow, and with Dragica for a group of students at Heriot-Watt University. The event closed with a public reading at the SPL on the afternoon of 2 March, at which the freshly-minted translations, along with the originals, were read, along with other work by each of the poets, in German, Arabic, Croatian, Gaelic, and Suhayl's distinctive Scots/Urdu tinged English. A recording of the readings, and the discussion which followed, is available at the Library, and we also hope to publish the translations in the future.

Ken Cockburn
Assistant Director, Scottish Poetry Library

Acknowledgements

With support of the Goethe-Institut, Presence Switzerland & the Scottish Arts Council.