{"id":32918,"date":"2022-04-12T14:25:15","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T12:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/?p=32918"},"modified":"2025-09-19T17:06:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T15:06:28","slug":"from-like-torn-leaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/from-like-torn-leaves\/","title":{"rendered":"Corresponding Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a9 Sonia Mehra Chawla 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a9 Sonia Mehra Chawla 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"project":[357],"project_type":[725,730,726,735,738],"class_list":["post-32918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","project-solitude-blog","project_type-formats","project_type-artistic-research","project_type-text","project_type-spheres-of-practice","project_type-scientific"],"acf":{"bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","custom_color_css_variable":"","content_type":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content_img","acfe_flexible_layout_title":"Bild(er)","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":6,"img_gallery":false,"img":[32919],"img_gallery_format":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_txt","acfe_flexible_layout_title":"Text","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"txt_cols":"is-1-txtcol","txt":"

\r\n
from\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Like Torn Leaves\u00a0by\u00a0Stevan Bradi\u0107\r\n<\/span><\/b><\/h6>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nhow much is this book\r\nfour or five euros\r\nperhaps more\r\nyou have it in your hands\r\nbut you see I had no say in all that\r\nno one asked me how much the labor invested in it\r\nis worth\r\nI believe you\u2019ve bought it\r\ngood reader\r\nbut I would perhaps gift it to you if you had asked me\r\nin time\r\nalas\r\nI myself do not have the rights to an infinite number of copies\r\nof my own book\r\nfor I do not own either paper nor ink nor machines used to multiply it\r\nI do not own anything apart from my effort\r\nand accounting has to be respected\r\ncopies counted in the warehouse\r\nbefore and after the book fair\r\nperhaps you\u2019ve bought it at a discount\r\nin that case I\u2019m glad you\u2019ve gone to the trouble\r\n\r\nin order to discover everything I have to tell you\r\nI feel\r\nwarmth between us\r\nas if we\u2019re accomplices in some secret and dangerous affair\r\nof which no one must know anything\r\nwe\u2019re conspirators prepared\r\nto topple\r\nthe world\r\nbut I will not see a single cent from what you\u2019ve spent\r\ntrust me\r\nour conversation is completely protected from earnings\r\nwe are leading it in the shadow\r\nof commerce\r\nand yet\r\nwe haven\u2019t sold our hearts\r\nto anyone.\r\nafter reading however\r\nmoney has to be collected in a single place\r\nand deposited into a bank\r\nin the firm\u2019s account\r\nand never as a turnover but only\r\nas a founder\u2019s loan\r\nbecause this way no taxes will be paid\r\nby our sellers and publishers\r\nand a book\r\nwhether good or bad\r\nwill be cheaper\r\nthan we could ever hope for\r\neven in our\r\nwildest dreams.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n

Translated by Stevan Bradi\u0107 and A.B. Jackson<\/span><\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

Rosenheim by\u00a0Jelena An\u0111elovski\r\n<\/span><\/h6>\r\nReiner and I\r\nwere also on that train.\r\n\r\nNight ride.\r\nTickets to be bought.\r\nStation, a bush of people.\r\nI come from Nigeria.\r\nAfghanistan.\r\nPakistan.\r\nWe\u2019re headed for France.\r\nWhy no one from Israel?\r\nBecause I speak French.\r\nI am a hairdresser.\r\nMy cat was left somewhere in the ruins.\r\nYou are lucky.\r\nI couldn\u2019t take my dog.\r\nAre you religious?\r\nI don\u2019t believe in god.\r\nI\u2019m a paleontologist.\r\nI don\u2019t understand.\r\nAre you a Muslim?\r\n\r\nI don\u2019t believe in god.\r\nWho then gives you your daily bread?\r\nI give it to myself.\r\nWhat do you believe in then?\r\nIn Reiner here.\r\nHere\u2019s two hundred euros.\r\nBuy us tickets.\r\nThere aren\u2019t any for this train.\r\nThey won\u2019t sell us tickets.\r\nHow perfidious.\r\nThey break our legs.\r\nCut our wings.\r\nFuckers.\r\nGood luck.\r\nHandshakes.\r\nSmiles.\r\nCheerful kids.\r\nProud old women.\r\nAfter a whole life,\r\nentering a new one.\r\nBeginning is hard.\r\nNot really your lover\u2019s squeeze.\r\nNot really your mother\u2019s hand.\r\n\r\nNight has fallen. Reiner is on my lap. Observing wildly. He never looked so wild. Street lights cut through the dark so we can see each other\u2019s faces. Who is afraid of whom. Who is more afraid of whom?\r\n\r\nA boy cries in his sleep.\r\nReiner and I caress him.\r\nDad takes him in his hands.\r\nIt\u2019s peaceful.\r\nIt\u2019s arduous.\r\nLustful eyes of a young man.\r\nBroken back of an elder.\r\nMum holds a baby in her bosom.\r\nNight is over.\r\nLike a silent play.\r\nPolicemen come in.\r\nDo you have a passport?\r\nNo.\r\nYou are breaking the Law on foreigners.\r\nNo.\r\nGet off the train.\r\nNo.\r\nYou are breaking the Law on foreigners.\r\nNo.\r\nCome with us.\r\nGood morning.\r\nThe conversation continues.\r\nWe\u2019re in a late train\r\n\r\nwe stay alone\r\nscraps of night\r\nwhite Europeans\r\nblack cat and I.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Translated by Stevan Bradi\u0107 and A.B. Jackson<\/em><\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_img","acfe_flexible_layout_title":"Bild(er)","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":6,"img_gallery":false,"img":[32921],"img_gallery_format":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_txt","acfe_flexible_layout_title":"Text","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"txt_cols":"is-1-txtcol","txt":"

\r\n
Beneath Our Footsteps by\u00a0Stevan Bradi\u0107\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/b><\/h6>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n

our time has passed\r\nin scrolling through the newsfeed\r\nin tumbling from one site to anther\r\nin collecting trivial data on individuals and events\r\non dumb movies and books we never finished\r\nreading\r\nour time has passed\r\nin skipping through the recipes we never tasted\r\nin listening to conversations between people completely prosaic\r\nof whose lives we knew almost nothing\r\napart from them appearing in front of the eye of a camera\r\nover and over again\r\nuntil they were completely chewed up and finally spat out in the dustbin\r\nof industry\r\nwe listened to the sentences short and quick that mercilessly arrived at the punchline\r\nfollowed by forced avalanche of laughter from the auditorium\r\nwhich meant money\r\nand money and money\r\nand this was the only measure upon which we could rely beyond\r\ndoubt\r\nour time has passed in overseeing\r\nthe formless knots of the internet\r\nour only fickle homeland\r\nonly origin national or other\r\nwhere insults could be exchanged swiftly and\r\nsecurely\r\nwith people whose faces stood petrified by the tangled pseudonyms\r\nwitnessing the lack of viewpoint knowledge or passion\r\nof anything else apart from the need\r\nto have one\u2019s voice heard\r\nwe have scrolled through the endless photo albums under a strange compulsion\r\nexpecting unconsciously to reach an image which would end\r\neverything we have seen up to that point\r\nexpecting a holy flame to scorch our tired eyesight\r\nbringing a blessed moment of peace or at least an illusion of happiness\r\nwe have scrolled through other people\u2019s albums and seen bodies among things\r\ncalcified figures unified tropes stylized grimaces\r\nlavish scenery shining modes of transport\r\nin exotic and unreachable destinations\r\nformed completely by the gaze of camera\r\nfrom which we never parted\r\nit was in our hand and it has become our hand\r\nwith it we have scooped food water love\r\nwith it we have rested upon the solidity that was patiently\r\nwithdrawing itself\r\nanyone\u2019s words could reach us without fail so silence was almost impossible\r\ninformation threats greetings smiles\r\nchildren\u2019s drawings signified our emotions\r\nand even though we in fact had none\r\nwe have shared and exchanged them in desire to master our appearance\r\nand create real consequences\r\non the fictional waves in a machine of technological ent\u00e4u\u00dferung\r\nwhich has long since\r\nmastered our astonished hearts\r\nmultiplying and subjecting them to the generic rules established\r\nunder the ownership of someone else\r\nthrough the mathematics which transcended us\r\nwe were unaccustomed to the unbearable freedom worth more than any pleasure\r\nand so we covered it up with fleeting sayings collages of nurtured faces\r\nand shards of collective ecstasy\r\nin a carefully monitored mirror which has demanded of us a recognizable\r\nhappiness or at least a purchase of its signifiers\r\nour time has passed in judgement\r\nof images and sentences\r\nsentences and images\r\nand videos\r\nshort and edited so one\r\nwould stay at least for a moment longer\r\nin a same spot a spot where\r\none would be offered objects and people forms shapes and colors\r\nstripped and light in motion quick but resolute towards an unsurpassed goal\r\nof which we could otherwise\r\nonly fantasize\r\nthings stood like that they were too beautiful to reach\r\nthe promises were so big that they could be fulfilled only\r\nin our wildest dreams\r\nbut we have loved them\r\nand spent our time listening to their seductive whisper\r\nwhile the knowledge of struggle\r\npassed us buy\r\nand the earth crumbled beneath our footsteps\r\nenduring the truth as well as its appearance\r\naddressing us constantly\r\nwith a song\r\nof which we wanted to hear\r\nnothing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n

Translated by Stevan Bradi\u0107 and A.B. Jackson<\/span><\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n
<\/h6>\r\n
Regina by\u00a0Jelena An\u0111elovski\r\n<\/span><\/h6>\r\nWithout her he would be a completely different person. In his seventies he would be a madman, a man lost in the role of the art patron, surrounded by walls adorned with highbrow art, and novel artists, whose voices rustle to exhaustion. Without her he would dissipate in all this. He wouldn\u2019t be frightened, he wouldn\u2019t even be a human being.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Translated by Stevan Bradi\u0107<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_img","acfe_flexible_layout_title":"Bild(er)","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":6,"img_gallery":false,"img":[32923],"img_gallery_format":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_txt","acfe_flexible_layout_title":"Text","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"txt_cols":"is-1-txtcol","txt":"

Alicante by\u00a0Stevan Bradi\u0107\r\n<\/strong><\/h6>\r\ni\u2019m at the main square in front of the townhall\r\nand i wanna talk to you about something that i\u2019ve yet to understand\r\ni am lonely\r\nmy love\r\nfor an entire week now i\u2019ve tried to touch your face\r\ni\u2019ve walked through the narrow streets of this town and visited\r\nall the places a foreigner ought to visit\r\nsanta barbara castle and plaza de los luceros\r\nseveral museums\r\nand the marble walkway by the see framed by decorative palm trees.\r\nrenowned warmth of this country is not unquestionable\r\nmy love\r\nits people are hard and proud\r\npreoccupied with silly things\r\nlike anywhere else upon this earth\r\nsome windows are adorned with spanish flags\r\nsome are not\r\nyou meet the poor in suburbs\r\nmigrants drive the public busses\r\nyoung men and women meet and part in front of the brilliant shopwindows\r\nand care only of how to multiply their joy\r\nas if joy could belong\r\nto anyone in particular\r\nalmost no one speaks english\r\nand since i don\u2019t understand spanish, catalan, or valencian\r\ni feel as if i am not\r\nwelcome here\r\n\r\nyesterday i\u2019ve read prevert\u2019s poem alicante\r\nand it reminded me of you\r\nmy love\r\nit is a short poem and it speaks of oranges\r\noranges here grow in the streets like in any other mediterranean city\r\nwhich will never cease to amaze me\r\nbecause they are not fruit\r\nthey are human heart hidden in the likeness of fruit\r\nand so it looks like the entire city is decorated with your absence\r\n\r\na shadow i see falling over the entire continent frightens me\r\nmy love\r\nfascism\r\nis once again rearing its monstrous head\r\ntrying to divide us\r\ninto the straight\r\nand the crooked\r\nits saccharine song resounds here in the hearts\r\nof many\r\nlike in countless other european cities\r\nit would be woeful if they were to start to sing along\r\nno matter how desperate they might become\r\nfrom the misery imposed upon them\r\nby the proprietors\r\n\r\ni can hear how the bells chime with immense gentleness\r\nfrom a nearby cathedral\r\nthey\u2019re measuring the time we have left\r\n\r\nand if it\u2019s so in this luminous country bathed in the glistening waves of the mediterranean sea\r\nwhat\u2019s left for us to hope for\r\n\r\nthis is what i wanted to talk to you about\r\n\r\n \r\n
\r\n

Translated by Stevan Bradi\u0107<\/span><\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

<\/h6>\r\n
Forgotten City by\u00a0Jelena An\u0111elovski\r\n<\/span><\/h6>\r\nI got lost it the Divine Music Administration,\r\nCloudy Place. All alike.\r\nApart from a single bush with three roses\r\nand thousand fragrances.\r\nI walk in circles.\r\nWhite and gray.\r\nAll the same.\r\nI was lost\r\nwhen I stumbled upon\r\nthat bush of roses.\r\nAgain.\r\nI had recognized\r\nthe geometry of the bush,\r\nthe arrangement\r\nof the roses\r\nshowed me the way.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Translated by Stevan Bradi\u0107<\/em><\/p>\r\n "},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_img","acfe_flexible_layout_title":"Bild(er)","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":6,"img_gallery":false,"img":[32925],"img_gallery_format":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_txt","acfe_flexible_layout_title":"Text","bgcolor":"","bgcolor_custom":"","layout_col_size":8,"txt_cols":"is-1-txtcol","txt":"

All images \u00a9 Andrea Palasti<\/p>"}],"intro_preview_headline":"Corresponding Poems","intro_preview_txt":"The poems by Stevan Bradi\u0107 and Jelena An\u0111elovski, present in this selection, address the questions of artistic labor, media, and migration, all of which shape and were shaped by our common world. When read together, they simultaneously highlight and displace each other, opening up possibilities for new understanding, which is why the authors chose them. They were read at the Akademie Schloss Solitude Sommerfest in 2021.<\/span>","intro_preview_img":32919,"post_id_old":"","post_author":null,"post_subtitle":"Stevan Bradi\u0107 and Jelena An\u0111elovski","post_preview_img_hide_on_single":true,"post_txt_old":"","post_pdf":"","post_copyright":"ccl_default","translated_post":false,"translations":null,"post_copyright_individual":"","post_related_posts":[31930,28481,29945],"related_posts_post":[13184,5619]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43592,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32918\/revisions\/43592"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person\/5619"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person\/13184"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29945"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28481"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"project","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project?post=32918"},{"taxonomy":"project_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akademie-solitude.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_type?post=32918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}