Huge meal [1]
By Helga Novak [2]
Translated by xia23 [3]
I am seldom in this town. I am here by chance.
I have a female friend in this town. We are very close. We write to each other extensively and intimately.
I’m here by chance. I don’t want to meet my female friend. I only stay here for a day. I don’t have time. If I meet her, I have to devote myself to her. She takes full possession of me. She says, what do YOU do here, or what do you DO then here, or what do you do then HERE. I say, absolutely nothing. She pulls me. She drags me along. She says, you do not call me. I say, I just want it now. She says, then it is terrific, that we meet each other. I say, ya. I ask, aren’t you on your way to your work? She says, absolutely not, I have a day off for doing housework. I say, you have so many things to wash. She says, I don’t think of that to wash, since you are already here. I say, is here a movie theater near here? She says, a movie theater. Go to a Café shop first.
She takes my arm. She says, when do you arrive here. I say, yesterday evening. She says, that is then impossible. And where have you slept? I say, in a hotel. She says, but, but. We take your luggage immediately and bring it to my place. I say, that is not worth the trouble, I leave in the afternoon. She says, you leave in the afternoon, you can’t do that to me. I say, I’m not evil, I have no time. She says, what is your plan. I say, nothing special. She says, by the way what does the relationship turn out. I say, what relationship. She says, the relationship in your letter next to the last. I say, in my letter next to the last. She says, his name is Roland or Ronald. You already know what I mean. I say, oh that. She says, why is that. You have written pages long about him and that would be at your wits’ end. I say, he is out. She says, an easy way out. That is fantastic. I say, ya. Is here no movie theater?
We go to Kaiserallee street. We sit in a coffee shop and smoke. She says, why do you have only your movie. We haven’t had a real talk with each other. I say, none. She says, have you had already breakfast? I say, no. She says, I get some food for us to eat. I say, I’m not hungry. She says, but you have to have a huge meal, would you like to have an open sandwich or cake? I say, nothing.
She goes to the counter. She takes two trays. She talks with a waiter. I leave the coffee shop through the exit to the Königstraße street.
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[1]. Kräftig essen. P. 63. Der Weg zum Lesen. Harcourt Brace College Publishers, Fort Worth…Tokyo. 1985
[2]. Helga Novak
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helga_M._Novak
Helga M. Novak (pseudonym for Maria Karlsdottir; 8 September 1935 – 24 December 2013) was a German-Icelandic writer.
Novak was born in Berlin. She grew up in East Germany, studied journalism and philosophy at the University of Leipzig. She resigned from the East German Socialist Unity Party (SED) in 1957 in protest for the Soviet invasion of Hungary, which had taken place in 1956.[1]
She moved to Iceland in 1961, where she married and had two children before her divorce.
She traveled to Spain, France, and the U.S., before returning to East Germany. When her citizenship was revoked for writing and publishing critical texts, she moved between Iceland, Germany, Poland, and Bulgaria. For a short period, she was an informer ("inoffizieller Mitarbeiter") for the East German Stasi.[2] In 2004, German authorities denied her German citizenship.[3][4] Novak died in 2013 in Berlin.[5]
Awards
- 1968 Literaturpreis der Stadt Bremen
- 1979/1980 Stadtschreiber von Bergen
- 1985 Kranichsteiner Literaturpreis
- 1989 Roswitha Prize
- 1989 Ernst Reuter Prize
- 1990 Marburger Literaturpreis
- 1993 Gerrit-Engelke-Preis
- 1994 Ehrengabe der Deutschen Schillerstiftung
- 1997 Brandenburgischen Literaturpreis
- 1998 Ehrengabe der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste
- 2001 Ida-Dehmel-Literaturpreis
Works
- Ballade von der reisenden Anna, Neuwied 1965
- Colloquium mit vier Häuten, Neuwied 1967
- Das Gefrierhaus. Die Umgebung, Hamburg 1968 (together with Timm Bartholl)
- Geselliges Beisammensein, Neuwied 1968
- Wohnhaft im Westend, Neuwied 1970 (together with Horst Karasek)
- Aufenthalt in einem irren Haus, Neuwied 1971
- Seltsamer Bericht aus einer alten Stadt, Hannover 1973 (together with Dorothea Nosbisch)
- Die Ballade von der kastrierten Puppe, Leverkusen 1975 (together with Peter Kaczmarek)
- Balladen vom kurzen Prozess, Berlin 1975
- Die Landnahme von Torre Bela, Berlin 1976
- Margarete mit dem Schrank, Berlin 1978
- Die Eisheiligen, Darmstadt 1979
- Palisaden, Darmstadt 1980
- Vogel federlos, Darmstadt 1982
- Grünheide Grünheide, Darmstadt 1983
- Legende Transsib, Darmstadt 1985
- Märkische Feemorgana, Frankfurt am Main 1989
- Aufenthalt in einem irren Haus, Frankfurt am Main 1995
- Silvatica, Frankfurt am Main 1997
- Solange noch Liebesbriefe eintreffen, Frankfurt am Main 1999
References
- 1. Ulmer, Konstantin (7 March 2014). "Ungebunden, ungehorsam, ungezügelt. Zum Leben und Werk der Dichterin Helga M. Novak". BPB. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
- 2. ^ Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung
- 3. ^ Ulmer, Konstantin (7 March 2014). "Ungebunden, ungehorsam, ungezügelt. Zum Leben und Werk der Dichterin Helga M. Novak". BPB. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
- 4. ^ Rohlf, Sabine (25 November 2013). "Helga M. Novak Ausgebürgert, zehn Jahre vor Biermann". Berliner Zeitung. Retrieved 8 January 2020.[permanent dead link]
- 5. ^ Moeller, Jack; Berger, Simone; Wieden, Anja (2015). Kaleidoskop: Kultur, Literature, Und Grammatik. Canada. p. 18. ISBN 9781305886001.
External links
- Works by Helga M. Novak at Open Library
- Entry at Literary Encyclopedia
- Biography (literaturfestival.com)
- [1] (Andrea Galgano – Helga M. Novak. L'esilio che trema)
https://literaturfestival.com/en/authors/helga-m-novak/
Helga M. Novak was born in 1935 in Köpenick, Berlin. She studied Journalism and Philosophy in Leipzig and worked as a technician, laboratory assistant and book-seller. In 1961 she got married and moved to Iceland, where she had her first volume of poems »Ostdeutsch« (Engl: East German) published, which appeared in West Germany as »Ballade von der reisenden Anna« (Engl: The Ballad of Travelling Anna) in 1965. During the same year she moved back to Leipzig and started studying Literature. One year later she was deprived of her GDR citzenship. Since that time she has been a citizen of Iceland and is officially called Maria Karlsdottir. Having resided in Iceland, West Germany, Yugoslavia and Portugal, she now lives in Poland.
Novak never allowed herself to be categorised as a GDR writer, or as a critic of the regime. She maintained an independent stance on the cultural scene, and in addition she refused to conform. »To whom should I conform? I was born in a Childrens Home and my mother left me 14 days later. I was adopted by completely unsuitable parents. To whom should I conform? Then there was the war. I left my parents’ house when I was 15. Then came school and the party and I didn’t want to conform to those things either.« Her childhood and adolescence motivated her volumes »Die Eisheiligen« (1979; Engl: The Icemen) and »Vogel federlos« (1982; Engl: Bird Featherless). It was a time of betrayed hope, intially the hope of a harmonious family during the time of the National Socialists, and later in an elite school the hope of the nascent socialist republic. In a vivid gush of stories Novak combines extensive splinters of memory with clear, lively, and sometimes lyrical language in serial poetic form, largely without commenting.
Her poetry is more expressive and sparser. »Silvatica« is a collection of demure, anxious and self confident love poems. Her semantics are encompassed within the context of the forest, a bleak, unaltered place remote from civilisation, in which the poacher can live out his vulnerable freedom in close connection with his prey. The mythological, biblical and literary pictures and allusions generate a wealth of significance which is unpretentiously kept together by the assonance and internal rhyme scheme in the rhythmically free verses. The cipher of the hunter’s language evokes an alienation of the familiar. A laconic, tender and bitter picture of love is therefore produced; »The hunt will always continue / Love has no off-season«.
Novak has continually been awarded prizes. In 1968 she received the Literature Prize from the Freie Hansestadt Bremen, and in 1979 she was writer in residence for Bergen-Enkheim. Amongst others prizes she was also awarded Darmstadt’s Kranichsteiner Literature Prize (1985), the Brandenburg Literature Prize (1995) and the Ida Dehmel Literature Prize (2001). Her numerous poetry volumes were published in 1999 as a complete collection titled »Solange noch Liebesbriefe eintreffen« (Engl: As Long As Love Letters Arrive).
© international literature festival berlin
[3]. Note: The author's writing style is rarely seen. I almost have to translate the story liturally. The author's sentences and the story are extremely short, exactly as described as "a laconic, tender and bitter picture of love" [2].
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