Also sprach Abdulla zu mir Fremde ist zu deiner Rechten Und zu deiner Linken ist die Fremde Denn du tanzt auf einem Seil Und er sprach Die Frage steht der Frage im Wege Die Antwort der Antwort desgleichen Denn du tanzt auf einem Seil Und er sprach Weder der Osten ist Osten Noch der Westen Westen in dir Denn du tanzt auf einem Seil Und er sprach Schließe deine Augen Und laufe so schnell du laufen kannst Denn du tanzt auf einem Seil
The Rope
Thus spoke Abdullah to me The foreign things are to your right And to your left the foreign things For you dance upon a rope And he spoke The question blocks the question Just as the answer the answer For you dance upon a rope And he spoke Neither is the East the East Nor the West the West in you For you dance upon a rope And he spoke Shut your eyes And run as fast as you can run For you dance upon a rope
Adel Karasholi (b. 1936) is a Syrian-German poet, playwright, translator, and essayist. Born in Damascus, he initially wrote in Arabic before moving to East Germany in 1959, where he established himself as a significant literary voice. Karasholi’s bilingual poetry explores themes of exile, identity, and cultural integration, blending Arab and German sensibilities. He has translated major German poets, like Heine and Brecht, into Arabic and major Arab poets like Mahmoud Darwish into German. He has received numerous awards for his contribution to literature and intercultural understanding.
A. Z. Foreman is a poet and translator pursuing a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages at the Ohio State University. His work (both original compositions as well as translations from Arabic, French, Persian, Chinese, Latin, Occitan, Ukrainian, Russian, Hebrew, Welsh, Irish and Yiddish) has been (or is scheduled to be) featured in the Los Angeles Review, ANMLY, Asymptote, Lunch Ticket, Metamorphoses, the Penguin Book of Russian Poetry and elsewhere. But really he's most proud of having had his work featured in two people's tattoos, and if you have a dog he'd love to pet it.
