CLAFest 2020 – The 3rd Constanta Literature and the Arts Festival ICATAT panel "In memoriam Swietlana Czerwonnaja"
Ammar Awaniy10, Magdeburg The Rose of Jerichow When I reached Germany 5 years ago, I was longing for a different life, away from the ruins of my lost past. I wanted to discover my internal peace and find a way to express myself freely. In Magdeburg, I fell in love with every little detail of my new reality. I embraced the ancient walls of the cathedral of Saints Maurice & Catherine and shared my secrets and my fears with the river Elbe. We talked and talked until we cried our loneliness away. I met new friends on the Elbe, friends of the word and the book, friends of the stage and of traveling. I became a member of the Writers' Association in Magdeburg and a fellow for international literature projects at ICATAT. It was through this fateful coincidence that I went on my first and so far only trip as a fresh citoyen of Magdeburg abroad to Dobruja in Romania, where I was able to take part in an Anticus literary conference in 2018. We got to know writers and artists, Tatars, Armenians, Germans, hospitable, open, intelligent people, Dobrujans. Thank you very much to Taner Murat for the invitation that time and the invitation for the second time now, unfortunately only virtual. In my text here, I tried to portray a different reality of my fortunate status in Germany. After a night I could never forget, I came home to my small apartment, having presented my first book to a large audience. I felt the euphoria of touching the red cover earlier that evening, the voices of friends congratulating me. But right there in that small space, alone in my room, I suddenly felt the sadness that hit me like a shock wave. I was forced to flee from the dark shadows of fear that surrounded me to a much better place, my dreams. I dreamed of my mother, of how she was always able to transform any room into a heavenly island of dreams. How my father's voice echoed in my consciousness to remind me of the past. The past before the war. And just like everything in life, every happy moment would come to an end. In my case, it was this extraordinary dream that ended at the very moment I needed it most to continue. "So close yet so far," I said to myself, longing for my parents' embrace. In the other part of my reading at CLA-Fest Constanta, I aimed to shed light on one of the most inspiring projects I have ever worked on as a writer and translator, the book "The Pasha of Magdeburg". I recited a poem written by the Pasha himself, "Mehmed Ali Pascha" Ludwig Carl Friedrich Detroit. A poem in which he expresses through its words an everlasting love for his beloved woman.
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ICATAT adjunct for interculture and literature, writer, actor. Born in 1993 in Homs, Syria. After attending school and graduating from high school from 2010 to 2015, studied automation control and computer technology at Al-Baath University in Homs. After his escape, he is living in Magdeburg since the end of 2015, quickly learned the German language, writes and reads stories and novellas, and also works for the Saxony-Anhalt state association for cultural education for children and young people. S.a.: www.ammar-awaniy.de
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