Highlight: Campbell Smith in German Translation

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English, German, New Zealand plays, translation

Beate Jones has recently translated into German Campbell Smith’s play about the Waikato artist Margot Philips, This Green Land.

Campbell Smith and Margot Philips

We’re pleased that Beate and Campbell have agreed to share this with our readers, as this is the first appearance of the German translation anywhere. Here we bring you Scene 2, in which a young Margo meets a New Zealand soldier in Cologne for the first time.

The scene is in the original English and then is followed by Beate Jones’s German translation. At the end readers can enjoy biographical notes on Margot Phillips and Campbell Smith, as well as the translator Beate Jones.

from Cambpell Smith’s This Green Land

Scene 2: ENCOUNTER WITH A NEW ZEALAND SOLDIER

MARGOT: There were other soldiers. The Army of Occupation. Talked to one once. An “Anzac”, I

think? Different, from the British.

SOLDIER WEARING N.Z. ARMY COAT AND HAT STANDS IN SHADOW.

N.Z. SOLDIER: (TO AUDIENCE) Well, ‘ere we are. Bloody well stuck ‘ere in Germany! I should’ve been

half-way home, by now, instead we copped this, bloody lot. The Aucklanders, trust our luck, eh?

Stuck ‘ere on the banks of the Rhine, ‘ere in Cologne. S’truth there’s a bloody big river for ya, eh?

Use’ta go down to me cousin at Mercer. (WAVES TOWARDS RIVER) Well, this ‘ere Rhine’s five times

the size as the Waikato, eh? Aw, she’s a big bugger, eh? Some river, all right. S’truth, eh. Any rate,

‘ere we are. Just hangin’ round. Waitin’, eh. Yeah. (MOVES ABOUT) And the women? The sheilas? German! Oorh! Not “friendly”! You know? Not like those French tarts. Bit of all right there.

(CHUCKLES) Ye-ah, eh? No way! Well, we’re the enemy, I suppose. (SHRUGS) Still some of me

mates say – you know. Play it right! Ya can strike it, eh. (PATS HIS POCKETS) Half starved they are.

Do anything me reckon. For a bit of something. (SIGHS) Me? Never had much luck, that way. Still

never know, eh? (SHRUGS SHOULDERS)

MARGOT ENTERS WALKING.

MARGOT: One night on my way home, a soldier, he spoke to me. (GIGGLES) Me? Little Margot?

N.Z. SOLDIER: (VERY FLAT N.Z. SOUND) Gid-day, Fraulein.

MARGOT: Ooh. Me? Oh, Hullo…Soldier.

N.Z. SOLDIER: Ya, all right, eh?

MARGOT: Yes, I am well. Thank you very much.

N.Z. SOLDIER: Where ya from, Fraulein?

MARGOT: Orh, here. I live here.

N.Z. SOLDIER: Here, in this place? Orh. Cologne, eh?

MARGOT: (NODS SHYLY) Ja, Köln. You are from where, Soldier?

N.Z. SOLDIER: Me? Orrh, (CHUCKLES) Puke-ko-he, eh?

MARGOT: Puuukee-koo-ee, aa? Where would that be?

N.Z. SOLDIER: Orrh. Other end of the world, back of beyond, I guess.

MARGOT: You are a long way from home, Soldier?

N.Z. SOLDIER: Yeah. Not like you, eh, Fraulein. Like to go for a bit of a walk, eh? (OFFERS HIS ARM)

MARGOT: Orh, yes, that would be nice. Where to?

N.Z. SOLDIER: Anywhere eh? Down by the river. Nice night for it. I’ve got cigarettes.

MARGOT: (RECONSIDERS) Oh. Don’t think I’d better. Not down there… Thank you, Soldier, all the

same.

N.Z. SOLDIER: (RESIGNED) Narh, it’s all right, Fraulein. Not if ya don’t want to, eh. (MOVE INTO THE

LIGHT) Yah not very old, eh?

MARGOT: Yes, I am about eighteen!

N.Z. SOLDIER: Orh, are ya. Eighteen, eh. Me sister at home. She be about that age now. I reckon. Yeah. Haven’t seen her for, orh…Just on three years now. Yeah, must be! Yeah, three years.

MARGOT: That is a long time, Soldier. To be away from your home.

N.Z. SOLDIER: Yeah, ’tis. Isn’t it. Bloody long time!

BOTH ARE SILENT, REFLECTING ON THE WAR.

Would you like some chocolate?

OFFERS CHOCOLATE TO MARGOT, SHE BREAKS OFF A PIECE, EATS IT, SOLDIER DOES THE SAME. THEY EAT IN SILENCE, MARGOT ALMOST IN ECSTASY AT THE TASTE OF CHOCOLATE.

N.Z. SOLDIER: Pretty good, eh?

MARGOT: Oooh! Haven’t tasted chocolate for years and years.

SOLDIER HANDS CHOCOLATE BAR TO MARGOT. SHE REFUSES.

N.Z. SOLDIER: Nah, nah. Go on. Keep it, eh.

MARGOT: Oh, thank you, Soldier. But I cannot stay.

N.Z. SOLDIER: Yeah, that’s OK, Fraulein.

MARGOT OFFERS HER HAND, THEY SHAKE HANDS.

MARGOT: Been nice talking to you, Soldier.

N.Z. SOLDIER: Yeah, it has. Hasn’t it. Good bye. (EXITS)

MARGOT: (WATCHES HIM, CRIES OUT) Oh, Soldier? That place, what country? (REALIZING HE HAS GONE, SPEAKS QUIETLY) Are you from. (LOOKS AT CHOCOLATE. THE TEMPTATION IS TOO GREAT, TAKES IT OUT AND BREAKS OFF A TINY PIECE, EATS IT, SPEAKS TO AUDIENCE) Never told Mother. Little Margot Philips. A good German girl talking to a soldier from the other side of the world. But oh, that chocolate.

Zweite Szene:  BEGEGNUNG MIT EINEM NEUSEELÄNDISCHEN SOLDATEN

MARGOT: Es gab auch andere Soldaten. Die Besatzungsarmee. Hab mal mit einem geredet. Ich      glaube mit einem “ANZAC”? War anders als die Briten.

EIN SOLDAT IN NEUSEELÄNDISCHEM ARMEEMANTEL  MIT NEUSEELÄNDISCHER MÜTZE STEHT IM SCHATTEN.

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT : (ZUM PUBLIKUM) Tja, da sind wir. Sitzen verdammt noch mal fest in Deutschland! Sollt’n schon halbwegs zu Hause sein. Stattdessen sind wir hier gelandet, der ganze Haufen. Die Auckländer, mal wieder typisch für unser Dusel, was! Sitz’n fest am Rheinufer, hier in Köln. Heiliger Strohsack, was’n verdammt großer Fluss, was? Bin früher immer zu meinem  Kusäng nach Mercer gegangen (WINKT IN RICHTUNG FLUSS).Junge, Junge,  dieser Rhein hier iss fünfmal so groß wie der Waikato, was?

Ooooh ja, das is’n Riesentrumm, was? Was’n Fluss, Mann. Heiliger Strohsack! Jedenfalls sind wir jetzt hier. Lungern einfach herum und warten, was? Jaaah.(GEHT AUF UND AB). Und die Frauen? Die Weibsbilder?  Deutsch!  Och nee! Nicht “freundlich”! Ihr wisst schon! Nicht wie die französischen Flittchen. War schon gut da . (LACHT IN SICH HINEIN) Ja, ja, was? Hier nich’, auf keinen Fall! Tja, wir sind der Feind, denk ich mal. (ZUCKT MIT DEN ACHSELN).  Trotzdem – ein paar von meinen Kumpeln… Ihr wisst schon! Packs richtig an! Dann kannste Dusel haben, was.(KLOPFT AUF SEINE MANTELTASCHE). Die sind halbverhungert. Die machen alles, glauben die Kumpels… Für ‘n bisschen was zwischen die Zähne . (SEUFZT) Ich? Hab’ damit noch nie viel Dusel gehabt. Aber man kann ja nie wissen, was? (ZUCKT MIT DEN ACHSELN)

MARGOT KOMMT AUF DIE BÜHNE SPAZIERT

MARGOT: Einmal bei Nacht, auf dem Weg nach Hause, da hat mich ein Soldat angesprochen. (KICHERT). Mich? Die kleine Margot?

NEUSEELLÄNDISCHER SOLDAT: (Mit schwerem neuseeländischen Akzent) Gid-day’ Frollein.

MARGOT: Ooh, meinen Sie mich? Oh, Hallo, Soldat.

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT:  Sind Se okay, was?

MARGOT: Ja, mir geht es gut, danke sehr.

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT : Wo sind Se denn her, Frollein?

MARGOT: Ah, von hier. Ich wohne hier.

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT: Hier? In dieser Stadt? Ah. Köln, was?

MARGOT: (NICKT SCHÜCHTERN MIT DEM KOPF) Ja, Köln. Wo sind Sie denn her, Soldat?

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT: Ich? Ah, (LACHT VOR SICH HIN) Puke-ko-he, was?

MARGOT: Puukeee-koo-hee, wa? Wo soll das denn sein?

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT: Ah, am anderen Ende der Welt, am Arsch der Welt, was.

MARGOT: Sie sind aber weit weg von zu Hause, Soldat?

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT: Jaaa, nicht wie Sie, was, Frollein. Möcht’n Se nen kleinen Spaziergang mit mir machen, was? (ER BIETET IHR SEINEN ARM AN)

MARGOT: Ah, ja, das wäre schön, wohin denn?

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT: Egal, was? Runter zum Fluss. S’iss ne schöne Nacht dafür. Ich hab Zigaretten.

MARGOT: (ZÖGERT) Oh, besser nicht. Dahin lieber nicht…Trotzdem, Danke, Soldat.

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT: (RESIGNIERT) Nö, schon gut, Frollein. Nich wenn Se nich woll’n, was. (GEHT MIT IHR UNTER DAS STRASSENLICHT). Sie sind wohl noch nich sehr alt, was?

MARGOT: Doch, ich bin schon um die achtzehn!

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT: So, so, achtzehn, was? Meine Schwester zu Hause, die iss jetzt ungefähr auch so alt, glaub ich. Ja,ja. Ich hab se schon seit, ah, grade drei Jahren nicht mehr gesehen. Ja, muss wohl so an die drei Jahre sein.

MARGOT: Das ist eine lange Zeit, Soldat. Eine lange Zeit, die Sie nicht zu Hause gewesen sind.

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT: Ja, das isses, eine verdammt lange Zeit!

BEIDE DENKEN SCHWEIGEND ÜBER DEN KRIEG NACH:

Möcht’n Se was Schokolade?

BIETET MARGOT SCHOKOLADE AN. SIE BRICHT EIN STÜCK AB, ISST ES. DER SOLDAT EBENFALLS: SIE ESSEN SCHWEIGEND, MARGOT GENIESST DIE SCHOKOLADE FAST EKSTATISCH.

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT: Schmeckt gut, was?

MARGOT: Ach, ich habe schon seit Jahren keine Schokolade mehr gegessen

DER SOLDAT GIBT MARGOT DIE TAFEL SCHOKOLADE. SIE WILL SIE NICHT ANNEHMEN.

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT: Nö, nö. Komm’n Se schon, Behalt’n Se’s,was.

MARGOT: Oh danke, Soldat, aber ich kann nicht bleiben.

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT:  Das iss schon in Ordnung, Frollein.

MARGOT STRECKT IHM IHRE HAND HIN. SIE SCHÜTTELN HÄNDE.

MARGOT: Hat mich gefreut, Soldat.

NEUSEELÄNDISCHER SOLDAT: Ja, mich schon auch. Auf Wiederseh’n.(GEHT AB)

DER SOLDAT GEHT VON DER BÜHNE. MARGOT SIEHT IHM NACH.

MARGOT: (SIEHT IHM NACH, SCHREIT) Oh, Soldat? Dieser Ort, in welchem Land ist er? (ERKENNT, DASS ER WEG IST, SPRICHT LEISE ZU SICH SELBST) Woher sind Sie? (SIEHT AUF DIE TAFEL SCHOKOLADE, DIE VERSUCHUNG IST ZU GROSS, SIE NIMMT SIE AUS DER VERPACKUNG UND BRICHT EIN WINZIGES STÜCK AB, ISST ES. SPRICHT ZUM PUBLIKUM). Hab  meiner Mutter nie davon erzählt. Die kleine Margot Philips. Ein braves deutsches Mädchen spricht mit einem Soldaten vom anderen Ende der Welt. Aber ach, diese Schokolade!

ENDE DER SZENE

***

We thank Beate Jones for including the following about Margot Philips and Campbell Smith:

Margot Leonie Louisa Philips was born on 5 April 1902 in Duisburg-Ruhrort, Germany. She was the youngest of five children born to Selma and Julius Philips. Margot’s father was a grain merchant who could provide a comfortable living for his family and who had a strong sense of their Jewish background but a liberal outlook.

World War I brought about the collapse of the business and when Margot’s father died their comfortable lifestyle came to an end. Margot subsequently trained as a shorthand typist and found employment from 1929 to 1934 with a chain of department stores but eventually lost her job because she was Jewish.

In 1935 Margot left Germany and found temporary refuge and work in England. From there she helped organize her brother Kurt’s emigration, along with his wife, to New Zealand, where they settled in Hamilton and from where they sponsored Margot’s emigration.

After her arrival in her new home country, Margot worked as a waitress in her brother’s coffeehouse in Hamilton, “The Vienna”, contributing a bit of European otherness to an otherwise rural and conservative environment.

When she was about 48 she took first tentative steps into the  world of visual arts. Her attempts at drawing failed but she persevered and finally developed, with the help of her Auckland-based tutor Colin McCahon, her own unique style of painting her favourite and almost exclusive subject: the Waikato landscape.

Margot Philips had a few exhibitions and in 1987 her contribution to art in the Waikato was honoured with an exhibition entitled “Margot Philips – Her Own World” to mark the opening of the new Waikato Museum of Arts and History.

In December 1988 Margot Philips passed away at the Trevellyn Rest Home for the Aged where she had spent her last few years.

Summary of Margot Philip’s biography based on Margaret Sutherland, ‘Margot Philips’ in James N. Beade (ed),  Out of the Shadow of War. The German Connection with New Zealand in the Twentieth Century (Auckland, 1998). pp 123 -127

*

Campbell Smith was born in Masterton in 1925. After an apprenticeship as a signwriter, he studied painting at the Canterbury School of Art before becoming  a teacher and spending two years in London where he earned  a living as a supply teacher. In 1956 he returned to New Zealand to work as a teacher at Waihi College. In the relative isolation of Waihi and still keenly interested in the Arts, Campbell took up wood engraving. In 1961 he moved to Hamilton, where he taught at Fairfield College while remaining heavily involved in the local art scene as the president of the Waikato Society of Arts. In 1971 Campbell became director of the Hamilton Art Gallery, then director of Fine Arts at the Waikato Museum. He held this position until his retirement in 1985.

Through his involvement with the Arts, Campbell Smith got to know Margot Philips quite well but the idea to write a play about her came to him after he met Jorge Alvarez, the ambassador of Mexico in New Zealand, at an exhibition opening in 2001. Alvarez had fallen in love with Margot Philips’s paintings and even purchased one to take back to his home country. Campbell, who had written more than twenty plays, decided to retell Margot’s story of loss and re-creation in his play originally titled “Waikato-Green” but later re-named “This Green Land”.

***

Beate Jones, a Bavarian by birth, lived  for seven years in Munich, where she studied English and French at the Ludwig-Maximilian University, before following her New Zealand husband-to-be to Hamilton, New Zealand.  She has been living in Hamilton ever since. While her first impression of Hamilton, after having lived in Munich, was not entirely positive, the city and its people, like the river Waikato, have wormed their way into her heart and these days she feels very protective of her elected home, which she feels offers some of the best possible compromises of living a city life in an almost rural way.

Beate has been teaching German for more than 20 years at the University of Waikato. She is currently enrolled in a PhD in Literary Translation at Victoria University in Wellington. Writing poetry, short stories and the translation from German to English of a range of texts have been an interesting and challenging  sideline to her work.

 

 

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Highlight: Chris Slane

Freedom of Information & Legends of the Past

In his cartoons, Chris Slane ventures into the gaps of the modern world with his fabulous Privacy and Freedom of Information Cartoons. With the same ease, he moves back in history with works like the graphic novel, Maui: Legends of the Outcast. 

His new project, Nice Day for a War, could be placed with both graphic novels and illustrated history books. Written by Chris Slane and Matt Elliott, it tells of one Kiwi soldier’s experience of life in the Great War, from training at Trentham to the trenches of Flanders and the battle of Messines.

NZ Post Children’s Book Award for Nice Day of War

Nice Day for a War was recently awarded the 2012 NZ Post Children’s Book Award. One-part war comic and two-parts history, it features never-before-seen ephemera from a soldier, as well as official histories, contemporary writings, cartoons and art created in the trenches by soldiers themselves. Postcards, photographs, letters, news reports, statistics and other original documents enhance this account based on a war diary.

Interview with Chris Slane

Did you find working with this historical material more difficult than other projects? And of all the ephemera you studied to put together Nice Day for a War, what surprised you most as you moved through the materials and discovered the story you created with Matt Elliott?

Research for book illustration is addictive, I find. After getting acquainted with lots of books on a subject, I need to collect as much visual reference as possible. Before the internet I would fill a box with clippings of articles and images, known by American cartoonists as a ‘morgue’. I still have those stored away, in case I ever need them, but it is much easier to compile images on a computer. The websites for ArchivesNZ and the National Library were great resources when working on Nice Day.

Using GoogleEarth enables me to virtually visit battlefield sites, the next best thing to going there in person. I zoom in, get a birds eye view, look at photos taken by people on the spot, then match them with historical images. That way I am more confident drawing background landscapes. When creating storyboards, I script dialogue and sketch scenes simultaneously. As I draw up the final art I need to keep reference photos in view on the computer screen and refer to them frequently.

When we took one of the faded pencil entries from the battered old war diary of Matt’s grandfather and illustrated it we were pleased to find it coming alive, but surprised to find a nice kiwi understatement emerging from the page.

Projects such as Kahe Te Rauoterangi and Hinepoupou feature heroic women, and much of your work explores heroic Maori stories as well. Is it more the human element in these stories or their mythical nature that lends itself to graphic storytelling?

A little of both. Superhero comics do typically revolve around a central hero and the drawing is mostly of one human figure. One central character is more easily identifiable than numbers of drab figures. That’s one reason they have such graphic costumes. I illustrated one myth (Kaitoa), in which the characters were vegetables and animals. In the end, these mainly human figures morphed into ingredients of a large bowl of boiling soup.

Comics can be used as a means to teach as well as entertain, as we see in the case of Art Spiegelman’s Maus books, for example. Your creative impulses seem to come from an urge to enlighten as well as entertain, going all the way back to your UN youth project, Poverty, Power & Politics. Would you say that’s true (with the exception, perhaps, of Knuckles, the malevolent nun and your cartoon books Sheep Thrills and Blokes, Jokes & Sheds)? Are you more teacher or entertainer?

Yes, it’s good to add a drop of entertainment, but the educational element adds depth, I feel. There seems to be so much untapped potential for graphic stories based on our history and prehistory, it would be a pity to ignore them. These stories just seem more distinctive to me. As a freelance editorial illustrator and cartoonist my work focuses on communicating with text and visuals. Nice Day was another chance to combine those skills with my interest in history.

The world of comics has enjoyed a resurgence in recent decades. What do you think this might say about the culture we live in? And is there more appeal now than in, say, previous centuries or decades? What is it about comics that can capture an age so specifically?

Visual storytelling certainly seems to be more mainstream now. TV productions and films usually go through a storyboard stage at some early point in their production, when they appear much like a graphic novel. Comics are accepted now because more people recognise they are another powerful medium for telling any kind of story. Previously, comics were seen as purely low-brow popular culture. I remember the only comics I ever saw at my school were Classic Comics. Now librarians and teachers actively support graphic books, perhaps because some teachers and librarians I know are cartoonists themselves.

And finally, what writers or artist have influenced your work, either directly or indirectly? And where do you draw your inspiration?

Comics creators who inspire me are both writer and artist, such as Will Eisner, Moebius, Daniel Clowes, Mike Mignola and Frank Miller. They give you a fully integrated comic, where visuals and story work seamlessly and you can find a singular vision. Humorous cartoonists also have that appeal, especially some of my favourites in magazines, like Addams, or Gross in the New Yorker.

Thank you, Chris Slane, for the interview!

Chris Slane is a New Zealand editorial freelance cartoonist and illustrator. His comic work includes the books ‘Maui: Legends Of The Outcast’, ‘Nice Day For A War: Adventures of A Kiwi Soldier in WW1′ , Maori history, legends and a contribution to Dark Horse Comics’ Star Wars Tales. Work as a commercial storyboard artist further utilises his graphic story-telling skills. As a freelancer Slane has contributed to a wide range of magazines and newspapers. His cartoon books include ‘Sheep Thrills’ and ‘Blokes, Jokes & Sheds’.

Co-creator of the satirical group puppet troupe ‘Hands Up’ Slane wrote, constructed and performed satirical items for Television New Zealand’s ‘Tonight Show’, designed and performed puppet characters for the children’s series ‘Space Knights’. He has won the Qantas and Canon Cartoonist Of The Year and Editorial Graphics Artist Awards numerous times.

For more, visit Chris Slane’s website.

(interview by Michelle Elvy, layout by Dorothee Lang)

Highlight: Voyagers Goes To Frankfurt

National Poetry Day Series

Introduction by Tim Jones

In 2004, poet, editor and anthologist Mark Pirie had a good idea, and he turned to me to help him realise it. Mark’s idea was to put together an anthology of New Zealand science fiction poetry, with a mixture of previously-published poems and new work: an anthology called Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand.

The idea was met with a degree of scepticism at first: was there such a thing as science fiction poetry? Had any New Zealanders written science fiction poetry? Even more pertinently, would anyone want to publish such a book?

The answers to the first two questions were easy. Science fiction poetry has a long history that includes the involvement of many distinguished authors, as the story of the Science Fiction Poetry Association makes clear — and plenty of New Zealand poets had written and were writing poems with science fiction themes, content or images.

The third question was a little harder to answer. Publisher after publisher told us there was no market for such a book in New Zealand, and when one publisher did express interest, the relevant funding agency couldn’t be convinced.

But, in 2009, IP of Brisbane published Voyagers, and since then the book has gone from strength to strength. It was well reviewed, listed as one of the Listener’s “100 Best Books of 2009”, and won a Sir Julius Vogel Award for “Best Collected Work”. One of the poems from Voyagers, Two Kinds of Time by Meliors Simms, was also nominated for an international Rhysling Award for science fiction poetry.

We’ve just received word that the organisers of the Frankfurt Book Fair have selected Voyagers for inclusion in the “Books on New Zealand” exhibition at this year’s Fair. To celebrate, here are four poems from Voyagers plus brief notes and/or bios from the poets. They give you a glimpse of the distances covered by this particular voyage.

*

Iain Britton, Departing Takaparawha

A woman squats.
She’s not peeing
or grubbing for worms.

She hugs her coffee
and stares at clouds
at islands in the gulf.

A man
cut from wood
and heavily tattooed

sits astride a gate
his penis
pointing at the sun.

Another man
the colour of dirt
comes to us

strips off his old clothes
and stands sweating
upright in the light.

In his house masked people
leap down from walls
and sit on the floor. They talk

and chant genealogies.
On the roof
someone

tugs strings,
works eyes
and limbs.

The show goes on.
We traipse outside
visibly swallowing the day.

A child (as if hatching)
crawls from her dugout
in the ground

and takes off.
A man as if wrapped in silverfoil
tells us she has this passion

for re-enactments
for re-entering the earth’s atmosphere
when she’s ready.

About Iain Britton: Oystercatcher Press published Iaian Britton’s 3rdpoetry collection in 2009, Kilmog Press his 4th in 2010. The Red Ceilings Press and the Argotist have recently published ebooks. A full collection with Lapwing Publications is out now, plus a pamphlet from Like This Press. Beard of Bees (US) chapbook is now online. Forthcoming: poems in Peter Hughes’ Sea Pie: a Shearsman Anthology of Oystercatcher Poetry. Also, Department Press and The Gumtree Press will be publishing collections later this year or in 2013.

*

Janis Freegard, Beside the Laughing Kitchen

I’ve been past the unbelievable planet:
Slabs of nostalgia, the soft skin of memory

Disruptive days, now swiftly approaching
For a stolen second I was myself again

I’ve been squeezing out the careful old songs
Eyes up looking, lights down dancing

Irregular obsession, beside the laughing kitchen
Tell me again, in empty eyelid sleep

Just how you got here: overgrown and delicate
Anxiously correct in curtained ballrooms

Author Commentary: “Beside the Laughing Kitchen” came about through a process of cutting up sentences and lists of words I’d written, then rearranging and adding to them until a poem started emerging with its own character. In this case there seemed to be a traveller in a dreamlike world encountering a strange, graceful creature – although I like to think there’s enough room for readers to find their own interpretation.

About Janis Freegard: Janis Freegard is the author of the poetry collection Kingdom Animalia: the Escapades of Linnaeus (Auckland University Press, 2011) and co-author of AUP New Poets 3 (2008).  Her poem “Gator” was included in the online anthology Best New Zealand Poems 2011 and one of her science fiction poems was recently nominated for a Rhysling Award. She also writes fiction and is a past winner of the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award. She lives in Wellington with an historian called Peter and a cat called Polly, and blogs at http://janisfreegard.com.

*

Harvey Molloy, Nanosphere

The Enemy of the World
watery eyed, unkempt,
finally captured after months in a hole.

A lab coat prods his back dentures
with a disposable spatula. How
slow and compliant the prisoner moves
like a rest home inmate.

In this cosmos his capture
shall be eclipsed by news
of the accidental discovery of the end of time

as weightless above this earth
from the station console
Irina checks the Doppler shifts
from the Sombrero, Andromeda, closer Tau Ceti.

Aware of the pressure of the moment
she pauses to gaze at the withered fingers
of a passing river delta
then tells Control her final confirmation:

the expansion is over and the big crunch has begun
the slow seven billion year retrenchment
from universe to nanosphere.

Her news crosses the twittering
of the only known radio intelligence:

0800 chatline numbers
psychic advice lines
impending Serbian elections
weather updates
body counts
Chinese operas
Marilyn’s slow turn in a hall of mirrors
Chico & the Man.

The day’s journeying calls roll out
within the bounded horizon of vast contracting dot.
There is only so much time. And time is running back.

The children watch television in the dark.

Author Commentary: I was thinking of Saddam Hussein’s final capture from his hideout, how pathetic he looked, and I started to imagine an alternative world in which the date of his capture coincided with the astounding discovery that the expansion of the universe was over and that the great contraction had begun.  The poem explores this idea.  The Sombrero was one of the first galaxies discovered beyond our Milky Way.

About Harvey Molloy: Harvey Molloy lives and teaches in Wellington, New Zealand. His poems have appeared in Best New Zealand Poems, Blackmail Press, Brief, International Literary Quarterly, JAAM, Landfall, Lancashire Life, NZ Listener, Poetry New Zealand, Snorkel and Takahe. His first book of poems, Moonshot, is published by Steele Roberts. He blogs at http://harveymolloy.blogspot.com

*

Sue Wootton, the verdigris critic

Suddenly tired
of the complicated interlacing of words in lyrical trim
she goes outside
and shouts very loudly
into the night.

The stars tremble
infinitesimally
then regroup.

In a distant time
on a distant planet
a literary critic with a greenish tinge
cups a tentacle to a blobular ear

hears UCK! UCK! UCK! UCK! UCK!
reverberate gently in the heavens.

Ah, sighs the verdigris critic.
Truly, poetry
is universal.

About Sue Wootton: Sue Wootton has won several awards for her work, most recently winning the 2011 New Zealand Poetry Society International Competition.   She has published three collections of poetry (Hourglass 2005, Magnetic South 2008, and By Birdlight 2012). She also writes for children and is the author of the children’s story, Cloudcatcher (2010).  Some of her work has been translated into Hungarian, Romanian, Vietnamese and Spanish. Further information is available on her website, http://www.suewootton.co.nz.

World Book Day: Books, Readers, Reviews…

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Bücher, Blog, Blogging, blogs, Book, book blogs, books, culture, featured, illiteracy, inspiration, internet, life, media, POD, poetry, readers online, research, survey, world book day, worldmapper

WORLD BOOK DAY, April 23. Organized by UNESCO, World Book Day is celebrated in many countries. At Aotearoa Affair, we bring you this special post with links, photos, quotes and notes, all about books and their readers and writers.

Also included: our own readers and writers Mike Crowl, Susan Gibb, Michael Arnold and notes from Bangalore’s Wordsmith and Words Without Borders with blog posts about BOOKS FROM OTHER PLACES. Plus: Poetry from another place – Enjoy!

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Old Library, South Germany, with book cupboardS

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The Internet and the Books

Every other day, a news article announces the general death of literature and printed books and blames the internet. A survey now pieced together the numbers. The death of literature? It’s an urban myth. Alexis Madrigal, senior editor at The Atlantic, put an article on books and our memory of the “golden old book times” together, chart included.

The conclusion: “All this to say: our collective memory of past is astoundingly inaccurate. Not only has the number of people reading not declined precipitously, it’s actually gone up since the perceived golden age of American letters. “

Here’s the full article; it’s worthwile to browse the comments: The Next Time Someone Says the Internet Killed Reading Books, Show Them This Chart

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Readers Online

Let’s go back to the golden age of books for a moment. Back then, the roles were simple: there were authors, publishers and readers. And mostly, the readers were on the quiet end of the table. The web changed all this: many readers now share their reading experience online and connect with other readers, and even with the authors. There’s an abundance of book blogs out there, with a wide range of themes: from current prize winners to crime and science fiction, and from books in translations to historic books to newcomers.

Here a list of the Top 50 Book Blogs. This list is based on 20 ranking factors and includes Bookslut, Booking Mama, Bookgeeks, and many other book blogs / book websites (scroll for the various ranking lists).

In New Zealand, everyone knows Bookman Beattie, who blogs daily about the bookworld, both at home and abroad. Former Managing Director/Publisher of Penguin Books NZ Ltd., and Scholastic NZ Ltd., Beattie keeps Kiwis well informed about the literary scene. And the latest interview with him, at Flash Frontier, is here, where he talks about the state of the book, the book review, art and inspiration.

Meanwhile, Tania Hershman has assembled a round up of the short story collections featured at The Short Review over the last four and a half years. Here you’ll find reviews of anthologies such as Best European Fiction 2012, The Book of Istanbul, Loud Sparrows: Chinese Contemporary Short-shorts, Passport to Crime, Paris Metro Tales and Qissat: Short Stories by Palestinian Women, plus reviews of collections by authors as diverse as German/Swedish author Alex Thormählen, Mexican writer from Jalisco Juan Rulfo, Cuban/Italian enchanter Italo Calvino Hungarian novelist, short story writer and journalist Gyula Krúdy, and Russian national treasure (whose work was suppressed for many years) Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.

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Reading books from other places: Mike Crowl on Chinua Achebe (& More)

Mike Crowl lives in Dunedin, New Zealand. He says: “Many of the books I’ve read have been from England or America. So what books from other places have really changed my perceptions? I think one of the strongest was Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. I’d come across a list of books that someone wrote about in a magazine; they were books that had influenced him greatly. Set in Nigeria, here was a world in which humans appeared, and behaved like humans, but everything beyond that was alien.” Here’s Crowl’s blog entry with more notes and titles: Books from other places.

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book table, frankfurt book fair: “PICTURING Change”

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The World in 7 Books

This isn’t news: the world population is now in the range of 7 billion persons. The continent with the largest population is Asia. What might come as a surprise, though, is the proportions of the population in relation to continents. If you put Asia in one hand, and all the other continents in the other hand, Asia still would be largest:

Looking at the world from this angle, if you want to read around the world in 7 books, you actually would have to go and look for 4 books from Asia and 1 book from Africa – and then for 2 anthologies that cover the rest of the world in their pages.

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Chinese PubliCation (Frankfurt Bookfair)

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Reading books from other places: Susan Gibb on Italo Calvino

Susan Gibb is a lifelong resident of New England and likely to be buried there someday as she is inextricably woven into the changing settings of the seasons. A book she recommends is Italo Calvino’s stories within story, If on a winter’s night a traveler, “because that book really wowwed me – it is a writer’s book, a book for writers. I’ve posted several entries while reading it, the final entry sort of sums it up: LITERATURE: If on a winter’s night a traveler – Finale.” You can find all of Susan’s reading notes (the most recent including Murakami and Lahiri) at Spinning/Literature (note: and when you click the image, you arrive at a second reader’s book review).

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Global Reading Challenge

To read around the world: that’s the idea of the global reading challenge, to read books from each continent of the world, and blog about each. There are different levels, beginning with the Easy Challenge: “Read one novel from each continent in the course of 2012”. Links to the blog entry are shared in a Global Reading Challenge 2012 post. The host for this year is Kerrie, a crime reader who reads around the world in thrillers.

Each reader blog is a world journey in itself:

Canadian Bookworm – Canada (librarian)

life as a journey – Germany (editor)

Personallitararybookfrenzy – Minneapolis, USA

Lizzy’s Literary Life – 21st century bookworm (UK)

Petrona – intelligent international crime fiction

an extra-links: Lizzy recently co-hosted a German Literary Month

more Reading Challenges: Ebook Challenge, European Challenge...

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Poetry from other places: Jenny Powell in Viet Nam

In her poetry collection Viet Nam: a poem journal, Jenny Powell forms a cultural and literary bridge between Viet Nam and New Zealand as the result of a visit from a Vietnamese music teacher, Hao, who lived with Jenny during his New Zealand stay. Three poems from the collection are online in an extra Aotearoa Affair highlight: “Indigo Lady”, “With Hao Overlooking Bac Ha” and “Marble Mountains”: “Here you will find / your answers — How did he know / I had questions?” Find them here: With Jenny Powell in Viet Nam

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Books Published Around the World

It’s difficult to find global book statistics online, but Worldmapper has a diagram that looks at the world from the angle of books published. According to their data, the sum of all new book titles published worldwide in 1999 was 1 million. The map shows the distribution of the new books worldwide.

The countries in the map are re-sized according to the amount of new books published there. Western Europe dominates this map due to the high number of new books published there. The most new titles were produced in the United Kingdom (pink), China (green), and Germany (darker pink). On the other end of the scale is Africa – the map tells its own red story of how the stories of almost a whole continent are lost.

A number that is included in their page: “The world rate of new titles is 167 books being published per million people per year.” That would make it 1.6 books per 1000 persons. It will be interesting to see how the map changes in time. (Note: If Worldmapper is all new to you, here’s the diagram explanation in a nutshell: Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. There are now nearly 700 maps. To learn a little more about this and other map projections read this: Worldmapper and map projections.)

Average Readers + % of Non-Readers

How many books does the average person read per year? The answer to that question is a bit easier to find, at least as long as you stay on a national level. There have been two large reading surveys, one in the USA, one in Germany. The surveys come with a surprise parallel: in both countries, the average number of books read is around 9. Also, in both counries, the group of people who didn’t read a book in the past year is 25%.

A number that is painful, yet also similar in both regions: the percentage of functional illiterates: 14%.

Here’s more on this: books published, books read, and 25% non-readers

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Reading books from other places: A Wordsmith on David Almond

Bangalore is home to 3 readers who run a joined international bookblog named “Wordsmith”: This blog is an attempt to compile some of the words floating here in this vast sphere of life. Literature, some call it. This blog though, will call such inspiration the Life Wordsmith.” One of the books recently reviewed there is David Almond’s “My Name is Mina“. The Wordsmith notes: “There should be a genre for that, surely. There should be a dictionary for words like destrangification, limplessness, claminosity, and the sheer strattikipiness of it all…” – For more strattikipiness, stop by at the Life Wordsmith.

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POD, E-Books + How To Do This Yourself

The digital revolution changed the way books are produced, and also the way they are read. Print on Demand (POD) makes it possible to create single copies of books, which allows to publish books for smaller and special audiences. Parallel, e-readers make it possible to read e-books in a new, paper-free way. The physical creation of a book: it doesn’t take a publisher anymore, not even a printer. Which doesn’t mean that things have become easier: writers who take the POD-way need to learn a good deal about formats, files, marketing and photo editing first — topics that can make you feel like entering another world without map. Some helpful links:

– A quick guide to book publishing services (POD + E-books)

– Book Marketing Guide for authors

– How to create an own book cover

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Reading and Surviving in other places: Michael Arnold in Shenyang

West Aucklander Michael Arnold spent his first winter teaching English and immersing himself in the culture and nightlife of Shenyang. His essay about it was first published in the New Zealand publication brief. In his blog ‘Reading the Maps’ brief’s editor re-publishes Michael Arnold’s essay with an introduction that points out that Arnold’s darkly descriptive piece was one of the most memorable pieces in brief‘s pages. Here you can read the essay in full, and be transported into a decidedly un-romantic Chinese winter landscape.

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“Bücher” (“Books”) – Bookshop in Essen, Germany

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Reading books from other places: Rosamund Hunter on Friedrich Christian Delius

Words without Borders is an online magazine that translates, publishes, and promotes contemporary international literature, and to serve as online location for a global literary conversation. The magazine features an ongoing series of international book reviews. Recently, Brookyln-based author Rosamund Hunter wrote about a German book: “Portrait of the Mother as Young Woman“, a book that challenges the readers and offers no easy answers.

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A New Diversity

There we are, with a growing range of publishing formats and publishing services, and with a growing number of small presses and individual authors. With so many new books that it is impossible to keep track of them. And with different suggestions as to how to deal with it: from university journal editorials that plea to “rescue public discourse from the blogosphere” (Virgina Quarterly: The Death of Fiction) to blogging and online book publishing enthusiasts. No matter how you look at it, a new age of diversity and of fresh voices has arrived, and this is Just Plain Good, as pointed out by Jessica Powers in New Pages: “You have this whole crop of writers from incredibly diverse backgrounds. The possibility of finding something there, something raw, something that isn’t out of a polished school of literature or thinking, is a really wonderful thing.”

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Official World Book Day Website

World Book and Copyright Day (also known as International Day of the Book or World Book Days) is a yearly event on 23 April, organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and copyright. The Day was first celebrated in 1995.

The official theme for World Book Day 2012 is: “Books and Translation”

Wikipage: World Book Day
UN-page: World Book Day

New Zealand authors at the Leipzig Book Fair

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authors, book fair, Leipzig, New Zealand

The city of Leipzig always has been a place of culture and trade: Wolfgang Goethe and Johann Sebastian Bach lived here – and since the 17th century, the city is home to the Leipzig Book Fair

The Leipzig Book Fair (“Leipziger Buchmesse”) takes place in spring and is the second largest book fair in Germany after the Frankfurt Book Fair. It is open to the public on all days, and emphasizes the relationship between the authors and the readers. In contrast, the Frankfurt Book Fair is larger, and focuses on the business aspects. More about the history of both fairs, further below.

The main topics of this year’s Leipzig Book Fair were: Authors at Leipzig (an author meeting), audiobooks, book+art, the region Central/Eastern Europe, Children – Youth – Education, Comics, Digitalization, Young German Literature and Music.

You can find more about all these themes at the Leipzig themes page: Main Topics of the Leipzig Book Fair

There also is a video with impressions from the fair:

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New Zealand in Leipzig
As this year’s Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, New Zealand also offered a first taste of its literary and cultural programme at the Leipzig Book Fair.

The New Zealand Authors who visited Leipzig were: Kyle Mewburn, Antonia Steeg, Barbara Ewing, Allan Duff, Damien Wilkins, Elizabeth Knox and Jenny Pattrick (photo: Buchmesse Frankfurt).

During the four-day presentation, the New Zealand authors read from their current publications both on the international stage of the Leipzig Book fair as well as on the stage at the Frankfurt Book Fair’s stand. In panel discussions, they shared personal insight into their country, its culture and its people, and got readers interested in their country on the other side of the world.

The 4-day presentation was rounded up by a discussion panel with graduates of the International Institute of Modern Letters at the Victoria University of Wellington: Elizabeth Knox, Kate Camp and Damien Wilkins talked about Creative Writing and the promotion of young authors in New Zealand.

Impressions from the Leipzig Book Fair

The NZatFrankfurt website features several articles on the authors’ visit at the Leipzig book fair:

Inside the Glass Hall – on visiting the book fair: ” Alan Duff summed it up well. “I think we’ve all been astonished by how many people have come to this book fair,” he said at an authors’ reading yesterday. “There are more people here than at two rugby tests in New Zealand.”

Kyle Mewburn at Leipzig talks about writing children’s books: there’s a “magical little element to it that you can never guess,” he says. “You cross your fingers every time you write a book.”

Poet Kate Camp talks Rilke and life in Berlin: “I have been reading a lot of European poets in translation, and particularly reading a lot of Rilke, his poems but also his letters. I think this has introduced a different tone into my work.”

Germany’s two main book fairs: Leipzig and Frankfurt
The history of the Leipzig Book Fair also reflects the history of Germany and the political changes: the tradition of the Leipzig Book Fair reaches back to the 17th century. In 1632, the fair for the first time topped the fair in Frankfurt am Main in the number of books presented, and kept thriving.

After 1945, things changed due to the cold war: During the GDR era the fair remained an important meeting place for book lovers and sellers from both East and West Germany, but Frankfurt turned into the main fair for book trade, especially for publishers and agents.

After unification, the Leipzig fair moved to a new, modern location outside the city center. Since then, the Leipzig fair experienced a renaissance and continues to grow.

A walk through Leipzig

Leipzig isn’t only home to the book fair – it’s also the place where the democratic revolution in East Germany started in 1989. The centre of the revolution back then was the Nikolai-Church in the centre of town. Beginning in 1980, people gathered in the church every Monday for prayer. First just a few met, then more, until in 1989, thousands came together there every week for Monday mass, which was followed by a walk of protest.

It’s still moving to walk across the church square, and to see the photo that was taken during one of the Monday walks. The banner says “Friedliche Revolution — Aufbruch zur Demokratie” / “Peaceful Revolution — Rise for Democracy.”

PS: For a personal impression of visiting the city of Leipzig and the book fair in a previous year, try this link from the editor’s blog: East west Real Life – a short trip to Leipzig

RELATED LINKS

• Leipzig Book Fair
• New Zealand at Frankfurt
• NewZealand/German Blog Fest: Crossings

Once upon a time in Aotearoa – Translating Maori Myths into the Now and into German

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Anita Goetthans, Aotearoa, Maori, mythology, New Zealand, Tina Makereti, translation

In her short story collection Once upon a time in Aotearoa Tina Makareti explores a world where old myths become part of everyday life and encounters between reality and magic are taken for granted.

Tina Makereti lives in Wellington, and is of Ngati Tuwharetoa, Te Ati Awa, Ngati Maniapoto, Irish, Welsh, English and possibly even Moriori and Scandinavian descent. Included in this feature is “Kaitiaki”, a short story from her collection that reveals the loneliness of old age and city life and the consolation and protection offered by the mountains. Here are the opening paragraphs in English and German. Further below is the full short story in both languages.

Interview with translator Anita Goetthans

For readers who are only starting to explore New Zealand literature, we spoke with the German translator of the story Anita Goetthans about some key elements of the collection and its translation, and about her own transition from Germany to New Zealand. Goetthans is a free-lance translator and interpreter and also teaches at the Translation and Interpreting Centre at AUT, Auckland University of Technology. She has been living in Auckland, New Zealand since 1996.

Could you tell us a bit about the story Kaitiaki, and about the way it connects to the past and present cultural landscape of New Zealand?

When I read Tina’s stories I fell in love with almost every single one of them. Although there is only one author behind these stories each of them seems to have its individual voice and idiosyncratic language depending on the narrator.

In Kaitiaki it is the kuia, an old Maori lady, who’s been disenfranchised from her rural home near the mountains for a long time, living alone and isolated in a city environment which becomes stranger and stranger to her by the day.

This is a common enough occurrence in the big cities, especially following the huge influx of rural Maori when labour was needed in the 1960s. In this decade te reo Maori was almost forgotten and frowned upon in primary and secondary schools. When the language was in danger of becoming almost extinct a huge effort was made in the 1980s to revive it, with some success.