Sujata Bhatt

Indonesia, South Africa, Estonia, Lithuania, Shetland, Nicaragua. Many worlds meet in these poems as nature dyes Sujata Bhatt's many languages with its own hues. The real merges with the surreal and the allegorical; certainties are undone in an open-ended quest. A Chinese cook ignores a predatory snake, a heart surgeon lives most intensely between operations, Gregor Samsa's sister proposes a different sort of metamorphosis, someone listens to the Holy Ghost sing, a woman hears her daughter's voice in birdsong, and the poppies in translation mutate according to the languages and histories they inhabit, ultimately persisting in a space beyond language. At times, language itself is injured by history: Bhatt reimagines the haunted undertow of postwar Germany as experienced by Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann. Meanwhile, the poppies are ever-present.

Poppies in Translation

Indonesia, South Africa, Estonia, Lithuania, Shetland, Nicaragua - many worlds meet in these poems as nature dyes Sujata Bhatt's many languages with its own hues. The real merges with the surreal and the allegorical, certainties are undone in an open-ended quest. A Chinese cook ignores a predatory snake, Gregor Samsa's sister proposes a different sort of metamorphosis, a woman hears her daughter's voice in birdsong - and the poppies in translation mutate according to the languages and histories they inhabit, ultimately persisting in a space beyond language. At times, language itself is injured by history: Bhatt reimagines the haunted undertow of post-war German as experienced by Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann. Meanwhile, the poppies are ever-present, with their black souls in the wind.

A NEW 2008 EDITION OF SUJATA BHATT'S CELEBRATED 1988 FIRST COLLECTION 'Brunizem' is a dark prairie soil found in Asia, Europe and North America, the three worlds of Sujata Bhatt's imagination. Born in India, her mother tongue Gujarati, Bhatt was educated in the United States and now lives in Germany. In Brunizem, her acclaimed first collection, she explores the richness and the conflicts of moving between cultures and languages, in poems that are passionate, direct and eloquent. Brunizem was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Asia) and the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award. In 1994 Search for My Tongue was choreographed by Daksha Sheth and performed by the UK-based South Asian Dance Youth Company in nine cities in England and Scotland, under the title Tongues Untied.

Brunizem

Dirk von Petersdorff

Jan Wagner

Franzobel

Michael Stavarič

Uwe Kolbe

SAID

Kathrin Schmidt

Uwe-Michael Gutzschhahn

Gerhard Rühm

Tanja Dückers

Dorothea Grünzweig

Gert Heidenreich

Christian Lehnert

Ludwig Steinherr

Bumillo

Seit 25 Jahren begleitet DAS GEDICHT kontinuierlich die Entwicklung der zeitgenössischen Lyrik. Die buchstarke Jahresschrift bildet das Fundament, auf dem sich inzwischen auch eine internationale Tochterausgabe in englischer Sprache sowie ein verzweigtes Online-Forum mit Anthologien, Dichterporträts, Interviews, Rezensionen, Audio- und Video-Podcasts entwickelt haben. DAS GEDICHT feiert seinen Geburtstag mit einer großen Festausgabe. Die Herausgeber Anton G. Leitner und José F. A. Oliver widmen sie der Religion, einem ambivalenten Thema, mit dem viele Herausforderungen unserer Zeit verknüpft sind. So ist eine hochaktuelle, opulente Gedichtsammlung entstanden, die der Frage nachspürt, wem der Glaube hilft und wo er scheitert. »Vielleicht ist Poesie das beste Medium, um sich mit dem Glauben auseinanderzusetzen «, meint Anton G. Leitner, Gründer und ständiger Herausgeber von DAS GEDICHT. In der 25. Jubiläumsfolge sind Poetinnen und Poeten aus vier Generationen vertreten. Das breite Spektrum reicht von Nachwuchstalent Anna Münkel (*2001) bis zu Altmeister Günter Kunert, der im Jahr 1929 geboren wurde. www.dasgedicht.de

Ein Vierteljahrhundert DAS GEDICHT

Das Gedicht, Bd. 25. Religion im Gedicht

Sujata Bhatt

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