Menschen kehren zurück –
Wenn wir alle das nur wüssten.
Was war, wird wieder werden;
Denn die Akteure kehren zurück,
Die sich einst gegenseitig
Bekriegten oder begrüßten.
Energie stirbt nicht so leicht,
Menschen auch nicht –
Sie wechseln nur ihr Gestalt,
bleiben jung, bleiben alt,
der gleiche Inhalt.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Im Jahrzehnt der deutschen Dichtung
Mein Wecker klingelt nachts
Nicht morgens, denn nachts
wache ich aus meinem Tagtraum auf
und höre mit meinem Schauspiel auf.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Im Jahrzehnt der deutschen Dichtung
Deeper
Than the sleeper
Dreaming can go
Deeper
Than the weeper
Hurting can flow
Deeper
Than the reaper
Planting can sow
Deeper still and deeper yet
Can the quiet heart knowing can go
And return and never forget.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
Learn to bear pain
Like the clouds bear rain
Like the earth bears grain
Like the rails bear each train.
Learn to bear pain
The loss will be your gain
When a new you emerges again.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
Bist Du bereit?
Wie eine Blume vor dem Sonnenaufgang…
Es ist so weit.
Und wenn Du aufblühst, ist das erst der Anfang.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Im Jahrzehnt der deutschen Dichtung
Some people you say goodbye to
Like a street sign or a signpost
Like a palm frond waving to and fro
Like a billboard with the picture of a ghost
Like a permanent painting on the wall
Like a window frozen shut in time
Like a silenced silent echoless evening call
Like a poem’s closing rhyme.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
Wenn das Herz zu geht,
bleibt es zu – ein Gartentor
ohne Schlüssel, das eisern steht
und weinend stehst Du davor.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Im Jahrzehnt der deutschen Dichtung
It is better to know a person’s character than to know the person’s history. You might think that you will not know the character fully if you don’t know the history, and there might be some truth to that. However the history might obscure and distort your assumption on the present character and give you a wrong impression and make you miss the person right in front of you now. You come to understand the character by observing and experiencing the person in front of you now. That’s the most important thing. Every other information about the past that you get should be put in context with the present.
People say if you don’t know where a person is coming from you won’t understand the person. But it works both ways. For me, the present is more important. If I don’t experience, analyse, intuitively perceive and understand a person as they are now, I won’t know where they are coming from even if they tell me. Because information is not knowledge. Only experiencing and reflection, leading to recognition, is true knowledge of a person.
Knowing what I did in the past does not tell you who I am. At all. Believe me. Yes, it gives you clues, but some choices I make today will still baffle you. Because I have a free will. To really know who I am today, you have to experience and read me TODAY. Then you will also understand my past and perceive what my future might be.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Undulating Plains
Ich kann weit weg sein
Und dennoch deutsch sein
Ich kann in Deutschland sein
Und dennoch nicht deutsch sein
Ich kann es
Und ich bin es
Denn der Mensch ist mehr
Als Land und Nation
Der Mensch ist Geist.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Im Jahrzehnt der deutschen Dichtung
Life’s poetry is kindness.
Art, poetry, music or philosophy
Without humanity is blindness.
For what is ability without sympathy?
No matter how great it’s climb is,
It is still empty
As long as it is lacking in kindness.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 