In diesem Frühjahr 2022 habe ich mit der walisisch-indischen Dichterin Tishani Doshi ein englischsprachiges Gedicht geschrieben. Es thematisiert die Gräueltaten an Frauen und Kindern in Bucha und vielen anderen Orten in der Ukraine. Für seine filmische Umsetzung durch das Poesiekollektiv Landschaft (mit Maria Shubhyk) habe ich auf meinem Youtubekanal eine Altersbeschränkung eingestellt, weswegen es nur dort und unter vorheriger Anmeldung zu sehen ist. Siehe Link unter dem Gedicht.
If you could choose to disappear slowly or fast,
be a mountain softened by tides,
a landmine of time, until nothing of you
is left but a pebble in a pup’s mouth.
If we could convince each other
we were not alone, that there were footsteps
that followed at a distance,
that everything we touch exists
because we speak their name,
would we still own more than what’s in
our jaws? Mine is empty today. I am Eve,
the kid of a goddess with wave-permed hair,
who taught me to keep a low profile if
I want to be safe here. Be soft, dear.
Today, I am not Ewa in Bucha who was shot
in the mouth after being raped for hours
before the eyes of her youngest. I swallow
the bullet I didn’t receive and laugh as if
I had been in a film shoot of sorts.
We don’t even own our words for despair.
All we have are the traces we follow.
They disappear fast. In dust, in snow.
