The Poetry Notes
Alongside the Protest Notes and the Peace Notes, these times also call for a new column dedicated to rebellious verse.
There are rebellious voices that grew loud during the crises of recent years — virus hysteria, warmongering and impoverishment policy. And there is a cultural scene. Sadly, though, these two worlds rarely meet. Literature and poetry seem toothless, mostly confining themselves to the realm of the aesthetic, often even the trivial. On the other side, resistance journalism often lacks linguistic power and beauty, the ability to con-dense a subject. The hard-to-fathom silence of the artists has been one of the great disappointments of the Corona years.
Jens Fischer Rodrian and Alexa Rodrian rebelled against this with their songs and texts as well as the project „Protestnoten“. Together with Marcus Klöckner, Fischer Rodrian also launched the article series „Friedensnoten“, pacifist song recommendations for mind and soul. Now the Poetry Notes are added, poems and song lyrics that show political engagement and literary quality need not be mutually exclusive.
The poetic word breaks open habits of thinking and phrasing and, through its mere existence, rebels against empty words and propaganda phrases. It speaks not only to „clever minds“ but also to the soul and the emotions — that is, to everything that makes us human in the age of transhumanism. The wings of poetry lend a thought on current events more depth and widen our view, so that the larger connections become visible.
A great deal has been written over the past three years. In truth, a great deal is always being written. But somehow the supply of texts, essays, commentaries and scholarly treatises seems to have grown. Perhaps it is only I who noticed more voices, because I came across so many new sources. It was not easy to exchange views publicly about everything that was being written, since in the eyes of more than one interlocutor it already amounted to guilt by association if you cited an article that did not come from the spectrum of the legacy media.
Many new platforms have emerged, new authors have joined in. Even people who are really at home in other professions took up the pen and spoke out. New forums were created, in which people engage seriously and with concern about current events and strive for enlightenment. Yet, astonishingly, the majority of cultural figures remained silent. Much is in upheaval — privately, professionally, politically in any case. Society is divided. Really a godsend for poets, songwriters and critical bands. But of all times, now, when even in the „Western world of values“ things are truly ablaze, when democracy and the rule of law are in danger, when censorship lurks on every conceivable channel, the great silence of those who once put their finger on the wound envelops us. Precisely now, one would expect artists to rise up, to be outraged.
With the Poetry Notes we want to give the floor to exactly those artists who did not stay silent. It is primarily about defiant, critical content, but not only — poetic dissidents write about hope, love and a better future too.
That the Western democracies stand on very shaky ground is something we have had to learn painfully over the past three years. Freedom of opinion is no longer a given, and neither is freedom of the press. Hardly anyone stands for the curtailment of free reporting like Julian Assange. He has been held for years in a high-security prison in England, because he took on the wrong people and published war crimes. He is in solitary confinement and was torn out of his life. His sons are growing up without their father.
Twice a year we organize a solidarity concert in Berlin and hand the proceeds to his wife, Stella Assange, who represents her husband legally. Our thanks go to all the artists who forgo their fee and thereby keep the project running.
Assange! (Jens Fischer Rodrian)
Original
„Was haben wir getan?
Was haben wir unterlassen?
Wann wird Schweigen zur Qual?
Wann haben wir keine andere Wahl?
Was treibt die Menschen an?
Was lässt sie verstummen?
Wann gehören wir zu den Guten?
Und wann zu den Dummen?
Wann verschließen wir die Augen
Wann wollen wir nichts mehr hören?
Wann werden wir laut?
Wann wollen wir niemanden stören?
Er hat alles riskiert
Eine Weltmacht blamiert
Doch die Vasallen sind geschmiert
Schaut wie der Rest von uns reagiert – SHAME ON US!
Wann mischen wir uns ein?
Wann sagen wir – es reicht!
Ist unser Mitgefühl nur Schein?
Ist Gleichgültigkeit so leicht?
Wann stehen Menschen auf ?
Wann bleiben sie liegen?
Wann nimmt das Leben seinen Lauf?
Wann wird Gerechtigkeit siegen?
Wann blutet unser Herz?
Wann spüren wir seinen Schmerz?
Lassen wir uns erpressen?
Haben wir wieder vergessen?
Er hat alles riskiert
Eine Weltmacht blamiert
Doch die Vasallen sind geschmiert
Schaut wie der Rest von uns reagiert – SHAME ON US!
Deniz Yücel kriegt Applaus
Assange fällt aus dem Leben raus
Er hat sich mit den Falschen angelegt
Wird vom Verdrängen weg gefegt
Sie zelebrieren Ihre Macht
Und ziehen in Ihre nächste Schlacht
Wird es die Letzte sein?
Es liegt an uns – allein“
Übersetzung
„What have we done?
What have we left undone?
When does silence turn to torment?
When do we have no other choice?
What drives people on?
What makes them fall silent?
When do we count among the good?
And when among the fools?
When do we shut our eyes
When do we want to hear no more?
When do we raise our voice?
When do we want to trouble no one?
He risked it all
Shamed a world power
But the vassals are bought and greased
See how the rest of us react – SHAME ON US!
When do we step in?
When do we say – enough!
Is our compassion mere pretense?
Is indifference so easy?
When do people rise up?
When do they stay lying down?
When does life take its course?
When will justice prevail?
When does our heart bleed?
When do we feel his pain?
Do we let ourselves be blackmailed?
Have we forgotten once again?
He risked it all
Shamed a world power
But the vassals are bought and greased
See how the rest of us react – SHAME ON US!
Deniz Yücel gets applause
Assange falls right out of life
He took on the wrong people
Is swept away by our looking-away
They celebrate their power
And march into their next battle
Will it be the last?
It is up to us – alone“