No Bird | Apocalyptic Confidence & Wir Poeten (German)

Radio Not | Skyto Poetry Movement | 09/14 | No Bird | Apocalyptic Confidence & Wir Poeten (German)

commentary words on "Apocalyptic Confidence" by Norbert Herrmann:

Those repetitive words with only little variation help me to go through bad times - maybe I learned to always expect the worst?

commentary words on "Wir Poeten" by Norbert Herrmann:

The first time I made it to Orange Farm - to a poetry session - I was on time. (Just to add, the drawing used as header in this website derives from this very first poetry session I participated in in Orange Farm and is provided by amazing artist Enikö Gömöri | in RSA.) To make that clear, I was the only person on time that time. In South Africa, nobody expects anyone to be on time, thats what I learned. That day I also learned that the youth, no matter where, needs to tackle disappointments. For nearly any poet there is a big gap between hope - of becoming a noble prize winner or at least receive some honors - and the sense of reality. Reality shows that no matter how well the lyrics are assembled you still need to fight for having an audience and even more, to receive any kind of feed-back. But no matter what, you keep on doing your stuff. This adds another lesson to the piece "Apocalyptic confidence": even if you normally expect the worst - that will not stop you from fighting and that might even make your fighting more powerful. This is the feeling of “We Poets”.
The German translation tries to maintain this feeling. As it is a South African poem, some of the translation needs South African background to understand. Best example: “die Erkenntnisknochen der Geistigen Heiler” are the bones used by spiritual healers to help a client dealing with the future. It was a pleasure to translate and still is a pleasure to perform this piece.