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Poetry
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I received the gift of meeting James Brandenburg at
the Twenty-Seventh Annual Conference for the National Association for
Poetry Therapy in April this year, where he received his Certification in
Poetry Therapy, after mentoring with Lianne Mercer. James and I spoke as though we had known each other
for years. I came to know that not only is he a practitioner in the work
of words and healing, but that he is an adjunct professor, counselor,
studying to become an Jungian Analyst, and after reading his book Somewhere
Everywhere/Irgendwo Uberall a
brilliant collaboration with German poet, Hejo Muller, I cam to know that
he is an exquisite poet as well. Speaking with James that weekend, inspired this
interview, which pulsates with inviting and inspiring content. ~ Margot Van Sluytman:
Will you share with our readers how your book Somewhere
Everywhere/Irgendwo Uberall, this wonderful collaboration with Hejo
Muller, was birthed. Kindly describe your process of dialoguing with Hejo. James Brandenberg: Hejo and I met in the early 70’s, at the Burggymnasium, equivalent to an academic high school and two years of college, where his daughter was in my English class. There was a parent evening where Hejo was the only parent who showed up. We ended up after the failed parent meeting in the restaurant atop the city hall, the tallest building in Kaiserslautern, Germany, where we spent the evening discussing literature, art, philosophy, theatre, poetry and music. There was a tremendous energy between us, and we were like brothers who were born in two different countries. That evening was the beginning of a lifelong friendship, and in the early 80’s, I translated Hejo’s play “Joshua” into English and directed the premiere performance of his play in October of 1982 at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcus, Texas. It was during this time we began translating each other’s poetry and the idea of a collaboration on a book of poetry was born. Between 1982 and 2003, when the book was finally published, we traveled back and forth between Germany and Texas to develop our ideas into a book of poetry. We corresponded by mail between visits, and eventually spoke by phone for two or three times a month, each conversation lasting about an hour. Today the collaboration continues in much the same format, as we are working on the first revision of Somewhere Everywhere/Irgendwo Überall. The revision will contain some of the former poems and some newer ones. For the past five years, my wife and I have traveled to Spain, and part of that time when we are living and studying in Spain, I travel to Berlin, where I work on translations with Hejo. Hejo and I know each other about as well as two poets can know each other; therefore, our input on each other’s poetry is profound and inspiring. I have said for years that Hejo’s translations of my poems into German sound better than my original poems in English. On the other hand, he has said the same thing about my translations of his poems. I know his philosophy, I know where he is coming from with his metaphors and figures of speech, and I know what he feels in his heart. And vise versa. There are many things we do not have to research, simply because we just know. We know what the other person is thinking and feeling. If we don’t understand something, we just pick up the phone and call the other person. Margot: In the
Foreword to Somewhere Everywhere/Irgendwo Uberall Professor Michael
Seiferth states: ‘Both poets have suffered into knowledge, contemplated
that knowledge, and in their own way spiritualized that knowledge.’ Please share with us what this statement means for you. James: Suffering is
part of the human condition. Life contains cycles, like the seasons.
There are valleys and peaks. There are those who deny their
suffering, there are those who try to pay for or delay their suffering
with money, and there are those who see everything through rose-colored
glasses. If people suppress their suffering, the collective unconscious
eventually catches up with them and bites them.
Hejo and I suffered in similar ways. He lost a brother in the
Second World War, I lost a brother in Vietnam, we both had bad
relationships and bad marriages, He had a tense relationship with his
father, my father abandoned us when I was three years old, we both had
difficulty figuring out what we wanted to do when we grow up. The list
goes on and on. Since Hejo and I see suffering as a part of life, we have
contemplated that knowledge, and in our own ways have spiritualized that
knowledge in our writing. Without suffering there is no opportunity for
growth. Allow me to finish this thought with the following quote from
Professor Michael Seifert: “….Through the mystic chord of memory
(poetry, music, drama, and love), both poets have remembered, put together
their lives, and it is the memory of an innocent past along with a
powerful present that produces the essential harmony each poet celebrates
by affirming (and perhaps reaffirming) meaning in the cosmos or at least
meaning in life.” Margot: What is
it that you would like the readers of your book to imbibe, to come to
feel, to come to know? James: I wish for
the readers to connect to the power of metaphor and the power of poetic
imagery. I wish for the readers to sense that war is senseless and that
when we lose a loved one in war, that loss haunts us for the rest of our
lives. I wish for the readers to see that themes are universal and that
human beings (underneath their languages and cultures) are the same. I
wish for the readers to see that truth and beauty are real and that truth
and beauty surpass cultural boundaries. When we rise above cultural
boundaries, then peace is possible. Margot: James
will you kindly speak about your relationship to poetry as both art and
healing. James: When I first
began writing poetry, it began as a way to deal with the pain in my
life—the pain of a broken relationship. I found myself writing because I
was hurting, and it was about the only way I could deal with my pain. My
first book of poetry, “In Pursuit of the Butterfly” was written to
deal with a very painful divorce. Eventually my writing expanded to issues
that I had difficulty expressing verbally, or my thoughts were so
outrageous that I needed that “alienation effect” in poetic imagery to
express my thoughts to others. As my poetry evolved, I began to think of
poetry as a craft, and in my more recent poems, I have worked very hard on
my craft. I now see myself very much as a vessel for the collective
unconscious. Writing poetry is not about my ego, but rather tapping into
something that has already existed since the beginning of time. Writing is
something very sacred to me. Margot: Please choose
your ‘favourite’ poem from Somewhere Everywhere/Irgendwo Uberall and
speak about this is so. James,
I know that this question is along the lines of asking a parent to name
her favourite child, yet, I offer you this challenge, for I know you will
dance with it, and we will be invited into your voice. James: I have had
the most fun with the poem, “Ambiguity.” I have read this poem
hundreds of times in different countries on this planet, and it has become
my signature poem. I studied theatre, so there is an element of drama
about the way I read any poem, but my reading of “Ambiguity” is
especially dramatic. With I open with, “Just wanted to dangle a bit over
the edge,” it shakes people out of their booties (complacency} so that
they are forced to pay attention and to think. Sometimes my opening shocks
the hell out of people. I have seen people jump several feet into the air
after I read those first lines. The poem is very dramatic, but it also has
a philosophy that people can relate to. It is that never-ending dilemma of
following the rules of society versus following one’s heart. It is about
going over the edge and connecting to the collective unconscious. And that
can be really scary and really dangerous. Should I stick with the tried
and true reality (all those shoulds), or should I follow my heart over the
edge? As dangerous and scary as it is to follow one’s heart over the
precipice, I still can’t stop going over the edge occasionally.
Definitely I suffer from a type of dual or multiple personality. I never
know which side of the bed I am going to wake up on. “Ambiguity” is
not the most lyrical poem I have ever written, but it certainly touches
people profoundly. As a poet, I can’t ask for anymore than that. Margot: How does
your poetry and Hejo’s poetry change, unfold, evolve in each of your
languages, if it in fact does?
James:
Your question touches on some basic issues involved in the translation of
poetry. Hejo and I are poets translating each other’s poems, so the
poetic quality of the translation always takes first priority. Don’t
misunderstand me. We are determined to stick to the basic meanings beyond
the lines, but we are insistent on the translations sounding like poems
and not like stick in the mud literal translations. How boring that is!
Sometimes we might begin with a literal translation of a line, and it
might take weeks, months, years to evolve into something poetic. I mean
really poetic. Hejo and I are craftsmen. We write, rewrite, leave it sit
for awhile, come back to it, polish it, refine it, play with it, speak it,
sing it, sit on it, throw it into the air, paint it, all the while trying
to keep the essence of what the other one has said. We enjoy the process.
Since we can literally read each other’s minds and hearts, it is easy at
one level but extremely difficult at another level. We are probably more
demanding of ourselves than we are of each other. The process never ends.
I am just as excited about my translation of Hejo’s poetry as I am about
creating my own poems. There are also times when one of us will go a bit
overboard and create a new poem instead of sticking with the essence. We
are both aware of that pitfall, and we are both capable of pulling back
whenever that happens. When I work with Hejo I feel as though I am working
with myself, because we are so very close. Sometimes we read each other so
well that the translation will clarify what we are thinking, and then we
will rewrite the line or phrase based on what the other has said. That is
almost a symbiotic relationship, isn’t it? Well, no, I call it just
being really close and knowing each other for 35 years. What a joy and
privilege it is to work with someone like Hejo! |
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