Wer braucht schon Gedichte? Spotlight

LANGUAGE | Poems
Poetry,
please!
Wer braucht schon Gedichte?
Spotlight-Redakteurin JOANNA WESTCOMBE hat sich mit
dem Grammatikexperten und Dichter Michael Swan darüber
unterhalten, wie Gedichte uns eine neue Sicht auf die Welt
geben und gleichzeitig unterhaltsam sein können.
W
hen did you last read or listen to a poem? For many
people, poetry is not part
of everyday life. This is ironic, as
poetry can summarize so well what it
means to be human, to have parents,
partners and children, to grow old
and die. According to Britain’s Poet
Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, poems
can provide new ways of seeing. She
calls them “moments in language”
that can celebrate, explore and transform the good and the sad things in
our lives.
Poet Laureate [)pEUIt (lO:riEt]
recite sth. [ri(saIt]
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Spotlight 10|14
Michael Swan is best known for
his books on teaching and learning
English, such as Practical English Usage. Many readers will be surprised
to know that he is also a published
poet. Spotlight editor Joanna Westcombe heard him recite a number of
his poems earlier this year. We hope
you will enjoy reading his thoughts
on poetry and language in the interview on the following pages, as well
as four of his poems, which Michael
Swan has also kindly recorded for us
(see page 34).
Hofdichter(in)
etw. vortragen
Linguist and poet:
Michael Swan
Michael Swan works
in English language
teaching and applied
linguistics. His poetry
has also been published widely and has
won a number of prizes,
as have his translations of Rainer Maria
Rilke. His two collections, When They Come
for You and The Shapes
of Things, are available
through his website:
www.mikeswan.co.uk
The collections:
Michael Swan’s
poetry
You are famous for
your work in English
language teaching. Can
you remember how
you became a poet?
I’ve been attracted by poetry for as long as I can remember.
I wasn’t able to write much when I was young (though I
wanted to), because for me poetry is about how I see myself and the world, and for a long time I didn’t really have
a clear view of either of those things. When I did start
getting things clearer I began writing a lot and found it
very helpful personally. It was therapeutic for me to bring
out some of the strange stuff that was locked in my head,
to find ways of expressing it and to discover that it made
sense to other people.
Is there something special about poets that makes
them different from other people?
Fotos: iStock; PR
Poets vary so much, and poetry is so many different
things, that it’s hard to make any useful generalizations.
Perhaps one thing that poets have in common is that, like
most kinds of artist, they are concerned with “shaping” on
two levels. First of all, they have their own very personal
ways of looking at the world: they see shapes, patterns or
connections that other people may not see. And secondly,
they communicate these perceptions by creating shapes in
their chosen medium — language. So personal vision and
applied linguistics
[E)plaId lIN(gwIstIks]
craft [krA:ft]
crow [krEU]
curlew [(k§:lju:]
deliberately [di(lIbErEtli]
heather [(heDE]
matter [(mÄtE]
meadow [(medEU]
pattern [(pÄt&n]
perception [pE(sepS&n]
angewandte Sprachwissenschaft
Handwerk, Kunst
Krähe
Brachvogel
absichtlich, bewusst
Heide(kraut)
wichtig sein, Bedeutung haben
Wiese
Muster
Wahrnehmung
technical craft are both important. A key point for me is
that a poem needs to say something that matters about
the shape of our confusing world, and to say it in a new
way, not just paint a pretty picture or repeat an everyday
sentiment for the thousandth time.
Can you talk about where your poems come from?
I don’t deliberately look for “inspiration” (whatever that is
exactly). Certainly I never sit down and try to find something to write about. The way I experience it is that, from
time to time, poems come along and, so to speak, ask to
be written. When that happens, I do my best to express
what I feel the poem wants to say. Often I don’t know
exactly what that is until I’ve finished, and look back to
see what I’ve written. And I don’t always know what the
real starting point for the poem is: sometimes it seems
to come from nowhere; sometimes it begins with just a
phrase or an image that comes into my head; sometimes
it arises from something I have on my mind. The poem
“Bridge” came while I was thinking about certain situations when I’ve found it impossible to decide between
two courses of action:
Bridge
Such a short little bridge
and you in the middle.
One step forward,
and you are on the mountain
with the heather
the clear streams
the cry of the curlew,
and no way back.
One step back,
and you are in the meadow
with the gentle animals
the young trees
the sweet grass,
and the gate closed.
And you stand there.
Night comes,
and the next day
and the day after,
and still you stand there,
till the black crows arrive.
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