2013/11/18

Lydia Daher - Autumn



Polly Ho

The November reading was a special one as we moved the arena to Goethe Institut. This session was a joint collaboration between the Goethe Institut, Fleurs des Lettres (字花) and Kubrick Poetry. 

Our guest Lydia Daher is a young German poet and songwriter. At the beginning of the reading, she made it clear that she considered herself first to be a poet more than a musician, and that music was only a platform for her to express her ideas. Her lyrics received warm acclaim in the media because they fit well into popular music.  She hoped people like poetry even without music. Lydia likes poetry but she does not know why she has to write it when most people see poetry as unimportant. She cannot explain the reason. She just has to write it.

During the reading, Lydia read her work November in German, Gordon read the Chinese version. Other members in the audience also read their contributions, including Areo, Haung Wai, Matthew Leung, Polly Ho and Tse Chui Yuk. Their contributions all echoed the theme Autumn. Lydia commented autumn in Germany was too cold and so her poems always carried a melancholic ambiance. She described it as “schweben” (German: sway) as she did not want it to drift into heaviness and darkness.





One of the participants, Tse Chui Yuk chose a poem named Death of a Poet by a Belgium poet, Maurice Careme. The autumn theme in this poem was not very obvious as compared to another poem by the same poet in which “he” is listening to the rainfall for hours. “He” seems to stand from a distant perspective looking at the scene of the rainfall. It cultivates a peaceful environment. So when compared to this one, the feeling is very different. She thinks the poet is talking about himself. In her understanding, the announcement of the death of a poet should be the poet himself. This poem reflected the paradoxical situation of a poet writing a poem, in the meantime, announcing the death of a poet who is probably himself. She found it very amusing.

Polly shared a poem called Full Moon in which depicts a journey of a couple at night. There is this tension and emotional instability of the woman in the poem as she was uncertain of the relationship. “She” finally found peace and felt home when she saw the dog. Lydia was not very satisfied with it, “It is nice but it is not nice because the woman is searching for something but at the end the dog gives her, not the man.” It came as a surprise. At the end, Lydia thought she has to accept it for life is like this. We are looking for something, then it gives us something else. Something will fill the position at the passage of time.

After the reading, Lydia gave a performance outside the Arts Centre. Students of Goethe Institut joined the party and they enjoyed Lydia’s performance. Autumn is not as cold as it sounds.





(photos by Paul Wan)


2013/11/11

Kubrick Poetry • 十一月•城市的散文


時間 Time2013/11/24 (Sunday) 4:00pm-5:00pm
地點 Venue 油麻地 Kubrick電影中心一樓講廳
主持 ModeratorAtom Cheung
嘉賓 Guest:張美君
語言 Language:廣東話

散文詩 (prose poetry) 生於城市,是營役急促的生活裏速成的快拍。最為人津津樂道的是十九世紀法國詩人波特萊爾(Charles Baudelaire)的《巴黎的憂鬱》(Paris Spleen),刊於當時的報章,是交錯的文類,既是散文亦是詩作。香港大學比較文學系系主任張美君的新作《寫在窗框的詭話》(滙智出版),企圖以城市散文為香港文化留下印記,並嘗試以詩意的想像和感性的書寫探索散文與詩或其他文類﹙例如攝影和繪畫﹚交錯的可能。在這次深秋的詩會中,她會與讀者一起談中外文學傳統裏的著名散文詩 (例如魯迅的《野草》和波特萊爾的《巴黎的憂鬱》) ,並分享她自己的書寫經驗。

Prose poetry belongs intimately to the ephemeral and fleeting city where our pace of life cannot be slowed down. In the Western tradition of prose poetry, Charles Baudelaire’s Paris Spleen famously explores the nature of city life through this cross-over genre. Esther M. K Cheung’s new Chinese book The Uncanny on the Frame (Infolink 2013) is a modest attempt to experiment what can be done in the cultural space of Hong Kong. In this November poetry meeting, from Lu Xun’s Wild Grass to Baudeliare’s Paris Spleen, Esther will share with us her reflections on prose poetry and its power.

“Which one of us, in moments of ambition has not dreamt of the miracle of a poetic prose, musical, without rhythm and without rhyme, supple enough and rugged enough to adapt itself to the lyrical impulses of the soul, the undulations of reverie, the jibes of consciousness? It was above all, out of my exploration of huge cities, out of the medley of their innumerable interrelations, that this haunting ideal was born.” --From Baudelaire’s Paris Spleen.

Kubrick Poetry • 十一月 • 「尋找你」之旅

  時間 Time:26/11/2023 ( 日 ) 3-4pm 地點  Venue : 油麻地 Kubrick電影中心一樓講廳 主持 Moderator: Polly Ho  詩人  Poet : 綠騎士,原名陳重馨 音樂家  Musician : Eugene Leung (...