BIO
Helmuth A. Niederle (born November 16, 1949, in Vienna) is an major contemporary Austrian writer, translator and editor. He studied ethnology, folklore, art history and sociologist at the University of Vienna. Later, he worked as a research associate as well as in the capacity of deputy head at the Austrian Society for Literature. For more than a decade Niederle was chair of the Writers in Prison Committee and presently, he is serving as president of the Austrian chapter of P.E.N. International.
BIO
Sarita Jenamani (India/Austria) was born in Cuttack, Orissa and studied Economics and Management Studies in India and Austria. She writes in English, Hindi as well as in her mother tongue, Odia. Having three books of poetry, she has been published in a number of anthologies and international literary journal including the prestigious PEN international and many of them were translated into several languages. Sarita translated Rose Ausländer, the leading Austrian poet, from German into Hindi under a scholarship received by The Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria. She has also translated contemporary Austrian Poetry into Odia. She received many literary fellowships in Germany and in Austria including those from the prestigious organization of ‘Heinrich Böll Foundation and ‘Künstlerdorf Schöppingen. In 2006, she was awarded the literary prize of Kulturverein Inzing, Austria. She has taken part in various literary festivals both at home and abroad. Sarita, the general secretary of Austrian chapter of PEN international, lives and works in Vienna. She is the co-editor and publisher of the bilingual magazine Words and Worlds.
Untitled
Every letter
has its place
in the alphabet.
Every shade
has its light.
Every place
has its story.
Every river
has its bed.
Every star
has its orbit.
Everything has its
place.
Only dreams
are vagabond
Nowhere at home
Jeder Buchstabe
hat seinen Platz
im Alphabet.
Jeder Schatten
sein Licht.
Jeder Ort
seine Geschichte.
Jeder Fluss
sein Bett.
Jeder Stern
seine Bahn.
So hat alles
seinen Platz.
Nur Träume
sind Vagabunden
zuhause im Nirgendwo.
Untitled
Everything is already said,
always said,
again and again said.
He who wants to be original
for him it remains only to search
for that sound
– that unique one –
Is everything just a sound?
and nothing else?
Then it is better just to keep quiet
nothing else.
Alles schon gesagt,
immer wieder gesagt
und immer wieder gesagt.
Wer originell bleiben möchte,
dem bleibt nur die Suche nach dem Klang
– dem einzigartigen -.
Alles nur mehr Klang?
Sonst nichts?
Dann besser nur mehr schweigen
sonst nichts.
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