stadtsprachen magazin - multilingual literature from Berlin

The new online magazine for the multilingual contemporary literary literature of Berlin celebrated its first release in April 2017. Berlin's living writers, who do not write their texts in German, are the focus of the city's language magazine. Presented at www.stadtsprachen.de will be 26 texts by 22 authors and more than 21 translators in 13 languages, from Arabic to Georgian to Yoruba! In the original and mostly with German translation the texts are also available in several languages like English, Spanish or French etc. 

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The author of the first edition of the city's language magazine: Rasha Abbas, Juhméké Bọlanle Adéyanju, Esther Andradi, Kevin Shih-Hung Chen, Dario Deserri, Dmitri Dragilev, The Dung, Federico Federici, Iunona Guruli, Andrej Hočevar, Tolgahan Kaftan, Kenan Khadaj , Göksu Kunak, Rafael Mantovani, Steve Mekoudja, Luísa Nóbrega, Denise Pereira, Elsye Suquilanda, Menekşe Toprak, Kinga Tóth, Yimeng Wu and Érica Zíngano. 

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The following edition of the onlie magazine is expected to be published on June 8, 2017. Further editions are currently being prepared. (The editors gladly accept text proposals and blog contributions from non-German-speaking Berlin based authors.) 

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The central concern of the STADTSPRACHEN is to raise the view that German literature is not only written in German (actually since centuries). The magazine finds out the most exciting authors and their texts of the multilingual Berlin literary scene by translating their texts and make them accessible online as well as presenting them in regular readings and symposia! 

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Welcome to a discovery trip to the unexplored literary treasures of the current Berlin literature scene! 
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www.stadtsprachen.de

www.facebook.com/city languages

twitter.com/stadtsprachen

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Contact: >> Birger Hoyer, Joey Bahlsen (editors of stadtsprachen magazin): info@stadtsprachen.de >> Anna Giannessi (press officer): presse@stadtsprachen.de >> Martin Jankowski (publisher): info@berliner-literarische-aktion.de 
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Berlin Literary Action, Kastanienallee 2, 10435 Berlin, Tel .: 030 - 53 15 59 63

Vernal Flowers ...

Must checkout these absolut amazing cuban-yoruba twins from Paris: IBEYI.
Best and strongest songs heard since months and years... real music, real poetry!

(Please listen and watch everything you can find of them - the best videos can unfortunately not be seen and linked from Germany...)

The day that changed Germany: Leipzig, 9th October 1989 (Why could the FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL happen?)

How to win a revolution without bloodshed...
East Germany 1989.

Why could the FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL happen?
(And why was everybody suprised about that?)

Video (BBC-Interview, Oct 2014).

Audio (BBC-Interview, extended version, Oct 2014). 

Novel (Rabet, Munich 1999).

History book (The day that changed Germany, Leipzig 2007).

RABET or How to win a Revolution without bloodshed (novel)

Thist novel about the peaceful revolution of soviet-occupied East-Germany in 1989 was originally published in 1999 in German language with the title: "Rabet oder das Verschwinden einer Himmelsrichtung - Rabet or The Disappearance of a Cardinal Point" (via verbis publishing, Munich). It was translated into Italian and Indonesian languages and partly also into Czech and English.

About the Novel: A German journalist narrates the events in Leipzig from 1987-1990 to his unknown daughter in New York.  Events which he has not talked about in years, absurd stories and the feeling of an era he thought long gone, begin to manifest themselves.  For the first time in German literature the story of the peaceful revolution is told from the perspective of a revolutionary.  The fictional characters exist in an authentic, historic background.  This novel hauntingly describes the interior dynamics of the events which began the German revolution, and the dreams, disenchantment and moments of joy lived by real-life protagonists.  Through this book, it becomes clear how truly these dynamics are still at work today.

Content: Benjamin Grasmann, an aspiring musician from the provinces, breaks out to the East German city of Leipzig.  While there, he falls in love and meets deeply inspirational artists of the Opposition.  He soon finds himself caught up in the opposition's conflicts with the socialist regime.  As small upheavals and demonstrations become commonplace, more and more of his friends are arrested.  The news of his lover's pregnancy arrives at the peak of political conflict, the struggle for supremacy grows inevitable, and not just Leipzig, but the whole of the GDR hangs in the balance.  And Benjamin Grasmann finds himself right in the middle.

Voices about the book:

“Martin Jankowski belongs to the most interesting voices of a new generation of East-German writers...” (Caroline Wyatt, BBC)

“We've had to wait ten years for this book!” (Thomas Meyer, Leipziger Volkszeitung)

“Rarely have the final scenes of East German history been described in such a realistic and at the same time hilarious manner.” (Wolfgang Engler, Sociologist, director of the Ernst Busch Actors School Berlin) 

"Very authentic ... describes how young people in particular in Leipzig fought against the system froze - and it finally brought to falter." (STERN Extra 4/2009, "Against the wall in the head")

“...one of the few novels in which the European dimension of the revolution is expressed... the representation of the split between those protesters willing to leave and those who wanted to stay is unique...it seems to be a legend of change – contrary to events. Jankowski is one of the few authors who makes not only critical, but ironic commentary." (Frank Thomas Grub, “Wende und Einheit im Spiegel der deutschsprachigen Literatur” 2003, de Gruyter Berlin – New York)

“Jankowski is making his way into German literature...” (Sabine Neubert, ND-Kultur)

bossa nova berlim - for my brazilian friends

a  festa dos segundos

as ruas dançam nuas e azuis
a hora tem o gosto quente do chá que revigora
as lâmpadas brilham ensolaradas como um bosque no outono
e as idéias têm o frescor da neve da manhã
tão-somente com as mãos limpamos os sentidos
embaçados como janelas pela chuva ácida
vagamos irrefreáveis pelo oceano do tempo
e pressentimos que a tempestade não vai passar
não vai passar

do rádio despenca o silêncio
na cabeça rouco e cósmico arde o jazz
tecemos um agasalho com a poeira  das ruas
e celebramos a festa dos segundos
a dama para quem recordar é dever
entristece e fica rija como sal
rimos e dançamos em torno da estátua
e por fim explode o coração

sobre a mesa uma conta que rasgamos
e  vivemos então nossos desejos
não ligamos para a ditadura da maioria
a esperança como princípio é prejuízo
por quanto tempo devemos esperar
por paraísos futuros prometidos
enquanto silenciosos e inexplorados
os melhores dias passaram
passaram

não não as ruas dançam nuas e azuis
a hora tem o gosto quente do chá que revigora
as lâmpadas brilham ensolaradas como bosque no outono
e as idéias têm o frescor da neve da manhã
(tradução de Carlos Abbenseth e Antonio Martins)

amour

tu me touches avec les doigts du regard

me décris avec la langue du silence

m’envisages avec les mains de la connaissance

assouvis ma faim pluridimensionnelle

tu jongles avec les syllabes hésitantes des odeurs

dévoiles des sons nostalgiques

tisses ton haleine dans la mienne

assouvis la faim des corps

tu danses avec le désir ardent de mes yeux

joues avec le rythme de mes pensées

avec les langues du silence

nous – un enfer foisonnant

de mots

pas encore nés

(Deutsch "stillen", in: "sekundenbuch", Leipzig 2012)
Übertragung (c) Marie Fleury.