A poetic vision

AS PART of the ongoing German Festival in India, Dieter M. Graf, a German poet, visited Chennai and read his poems in German, at a function organised jointly by Sahitya Akademi and Max Mueller Bhavan, February 12 at the Max Muller Bhavan premises.

Dieter Graf, born in 1960 in Ludwighsafen/Rhein, is one of the well-known poets of a new Germany, now living in Koln. He shot to fame with his debut collection of poems titled "Rauchstudie: Vater + Son". It stands out for its bold, witty and gloomy combination of trivia with literary sensitivity of a high order. His second work, "Triebender Kopf", was published in 1997. This work conveys darker, more thoughtful and serious feelings. It reveals a longing for childhood dreams as well as a poetic lyricism for Nature. Several of his works have been awarded prizes, the highest among them being the "Leonce-und Lena-Preis der Stadt Darmstadt." Since 1996, Graf has been a member of the P. E.N - Zentrum in Germany, an intellectual institution which stands for the worldwide propagation of literature and the exchange of thoughts between writers, even in times of war or political crises. Its members are actively involved in fighting against race, class and ethnic oppression and emphasising the freedom of the press.

Dieter Graf traces his encounter with poetry to the age of 15 when he was a school student. Like everyone else, he began writing poetry as a means of self-expression. By 17, his poems found their place in school magazines. At 20, he was writing for small magazines and newspapers. At that stage, his writing was not restricted to poetry alone. He was writing reviews and other articles in prose too. But, after some time he realised that poetry was his metier and has since then concentrated on writing poems.

To Dieter Graf, writing poetry was a natural process; living in a city famous for its chemical industry, he had none to support him in his poetic inclinations. He comes from a family of workers, which again had no time to encourage poetic thoughts and feelings. As a child, he was fond of reading and was fascinated by books. He used to borrow books from "Bookbus," a kind of circulating library. His contact with the exciting world of books initiated him into the world of poetry also. He remembers his first experience of reading a collection of poems by Bertold Brecht. He wondered how an important and well known poet could write such bad poems. He adds with a laugh, "I must say that my first impression remains unchanged even now." His teachers, with the exception of one whom he met while he was in higher classes, also were of no help in fostering his interest in German poetry. "I knew more about German poets than them" was his cryptic comment. All in all, it was his intimate access to the books from childhood onwards that sustained his interest in poetry.

He evolved his own style of writing poetry by the age of 19. He describes the process thus, "In chaotic times, you try various things to find your own voice. I found a natural magic in poetry. My interest in other arts also helped me to formulate my style. Being in touch with contemporary fine arts put me in touch with structures in expression. I found my rhythm in performances and exhibitions rather than in literary works. I began looking for a style to reflect the new rhythm of life. I found a few fellow poets who like me, were struggling to find their pace, rhythm and voice and we began to support each other. I call my earlier poems "text machines". The humour came later."

Comparing his first and second collection of poems, he says, "In my later poems, I found a greater balance, a silent, reflective and mediative quality. My view of the world changed; I dropped a little bit of the speed that I was trying to capture and began to search for harmony in life." He believes that the structure of poetry has to be in harmony with the rhythm of the surroundings. "If you are sitting on the mountains of Switzerland and writing poetry, the poems will reflect the calm and silent beauty of those surroundings. But you cannot sit in a modern city, with its sound of vehicles moving at a great speed and crowds of citydwellers immersed in their fast-paced routine, and write the same kind of poetry. The structure has to necessarily change, to reflect the difference in the landscape and rhythm of life. In other words, one has to have connections with the lifestyle of the world one lives in. The media has changed the modern life completely. It has given a totally new dimension to life. This also has to be reflected in modern poetry to give it validity."

He then talked about the changes in Germany which transformed his own views of life and writing poetry too. The breaking of the Berlin Wall and the reunification did not affect him much. It is earlier events, such as the student movement in which he took an active part, which made him a politically conscious individual.

He went through various phases in his political convictions. Now, he does not subscribe to a fixed model that explains the world; he feels more at home, intertwining different models.

I commented on the references in his poems to Jesus Christ and Christianity. He agreed that his later poems distinctly reflected Christian motifs. These are very evident in poems such as "Yuccas Joshua" and "Breaking of the Upper Palatinate." He said that in "Yuccas Joshua," he was trying to make a distinction between two conceptions of religiosity; the Old Testament concept of a "Father God," a "punishing God" which he finds rather childish and a "pantheistic, impersonal God" which evokes a greater spiritual energy. The new poems that he is writing reflects his interest in Buddhism. He feels that while appreciating other cultures in the world one has to look at the positive factors in one's own culture. One can find peace only if one is willing to look at the good things in one's own culture and accept one's roots. Talking of his technique in writing poetry, he says he does not follow any definite technique. He follows his instinct for words and language. Sometimes he writes "out of language" also. There is no programmed writing, but only working with a natural talent. Once again, he repeated, "There is no style other than keeping the structure connected to the surroundings."

VASANTI SANKARANARAYANAN

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