 Okay, now we've come to the fish out of water part of tonight. For those of you who don't know what fish out of water is, I want to introduce the concept to you real quick. Usually what we do is invite students of foreign languages who learn foreign languages at the U of A or have learned them previously to come together and present a poem or whatever they want in the foreign languages they learn, just to provide them with a supportive, nice environment to practice their foreign language skills. This time we've turned it a little bit around. Usually they perform original pieces in the foreign language. This time we have translations of German poems. So it's still non-native because our presenters are going to still perform non-native words, but in usually their native language. So this is going to be really exciting and we're also going to take you a little bit throughout German literary history. And we're actually going to start with Professor Klassen from our department. He's going to perform a poem by Osweil von Wolkenstein, which nicely shows multilingualism already in the Middle Ages. And I think he might say a little bit more about it. How I've structured the PowerPoint is that you have the original on one side and then usually an English translation to follow along with it. So please welcome Professor Klassen. It is a huge challenge. Osweil von Wolkenstein claimed to have learned up to ten languages and he was ruthless. He created his poetry about three or four of them that are multilingual. He is ruthless. He just puts it all in. And there are languages such as German, Middle High German, and there's Italian, Slovenian, French, Spanish, Catalan, Low German, Slovenian, Hungarian, and others. We know for sure that no one understood him. That's for sure. So what I'm giving you is quickly a reading of his work, just one of his three multilingual poems. It's very difficult, to some extent. I'm not as qualified as he is. And in reality I should sing those songs. And if I did to do, the room would be empty immediately. So I'm not doing that either. I'm just trying my best reading to you. What I will do is exactly what he did. He had his poem, Climb 69, Le Freit Amour, written down once in the oblique multilingual form. And then he copied it once again and it provided the Middle High German version. So I don't even know where to start and where to end. It is all mixed. So I will do this very quickly and try my best. And I always will switch just as he wanted it to do. First the multilingual version on the left and then the Middle High German on the right. That's that in bold. And by the way, thanks to Karen for helping getting this PowerPoint together. So. Le Freit Amour. Ach was mein Lier. Ach you were me. Hilf mir. Mein Wut. Fert. Mein Ors. Mein Ros. Mein Mois Erze. Dazu mein Herz. Rende Gede. Frau Poretti. Ach la, ach la. Ich lauf ich's life. Wel, wel, wo, warum? Oder wo ich geh? Welche, werlich. Mein Kraft. Mit des Dobres. Erhalt mich fast. In lauf. Ich ein. Es fremd und frei. Mehr Schiwäustrie. Erdenklich Rüff. Minne Schenner. Sag mir jetzt das Weit. Immer sehn. Mein Herz. Herr Omnir. Überall. Meins leibes Ür. Tschänzer Bessli. An alle Sport. Mit bloch noch wahr. Mit schöner Werken. Du zernerein. Ich dir mir das. Porcetti. Deich. Porcetti. Deich. Nörr was du willst. Nehmt du den. Und weiss nicht. Frei. Für wahr. Kein falscher Reis. Gott hat Wollt wie. Gott weiss Wollt wie. Eck da am Ar. Ich nicht lehrt hab. Dem mit Arm. Mann wäsch. Nörr was du willst.ilia. Mein schöne Krecheck. experimenting aus ganzen Gründen das Tür. Italian Dr 가 Olive animation La Fan in great league. In Lejen Jinus. Dios. Thank you for this. We're moving on a little bit to German Romanticism. I would like to welcome Eric Miguel Abia from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. He's an MA student there and he will read to us the poem Diotiba in Spanish. We don't have an English translation for that. We just have the German, but since it's Romanticism and because it's all about feelings, we've invited Eric to provide us with what he thinks the poem means and why it means so much to him. So please welcome Eric. Well, I'm a bit nervous. There's a lot of people here. They might not expect it that much. Yeah, so I wanted to talk a little bit about... They say that these types of poems today, sometimes people do not like them as much and with people I mean writers because they think, oh, it's very simple feelings. There's no abstract thought in all of this. And I actually believe that when I was a... I'm a young writer now. I think I'm 27. When I was like 18, 15, from 15 to 23, I actually thought, well, yeah, that is kind of true. I never really read the Romantics because I thought that it was just simple feelings and all that. And I always try to look for works that were more intellectual and abstract and have very complex ideas as a young writer. But then I just started to study literature so I just read a whole lot of authors. And the point that I'm trying to make is that my view of Romanticism from some rings that I've done right now has really made me rediscover these so-called simple feelings. There is this philosopher who is from Vienna. His name is Wittgenstein. And his work has really influenced me as a writer. I'm from Mexico and I... There was this phrase in the story of Philip Weiss that really caught my attention and he said that imagine there is something that has no meaning at all. And then at the bottom it says that it has no meaning at all so it can mean anything at all. And that is a main idea of Wittgenstein in his philosophical investigations. He gets in a quarry with a lot of philosophers. He says that they actually muddy the waters because they're always trying to find new meanings. But Wittgenstein when he studies how normal people, how ordinary people make meanings he says when philosophers look for nothingness they actually do not understand that it's weird for anything to be at all in meaning. So that idea really stuck to me and I'm like okay so I've been trying to find as a writer and all of the writer friends that I have had for the last five years I have tried to find to express new meanings when actually love in real life for it to even be at all is so weird. So I've been influenced right now by the romantics. I've been going back to them, the Mexican romantics principalmente. And what I thought was corny at first now feels really intense and weird just because it exists. So it is through the ideas of Wittgenstein there's the other writer that influences me a lot is actually another writer from from El País de Austria. I think in German it's pronounced Musil, Robert Musil. I love him. Okay so with that being said let us explore this poem in Espanol and try to feel the simple feelings as something actually real. You know and let us try to find how the poet, I do not know how to pronounce his name in German. He establishes a type of myth of how to feel love in the first place at all in the poem. So without further ado I'll start in Espanol. Okay. Yotima. Largamente muerto y replegado en sí mismo, mi corazón saluda la belleza del mundo. Sus ramas florecen y echan brotes abultadas por una sabia nueva o yo volveré a vivir así como el feliz esfuerzo de mis flores atravesando su dura capsula, encelanzas el aire y la luz. ¿Cómo ha cambiado el aspecto de todo lo que odierí de mí? Enlaza hoy sus tiempos acordes a la melodía de mi vida y cada vez que la hora suena una misteriosa emoción me recuerda los días dorados de mi infancia desde que hay ayer mi único bien. Yotima dichoso ser, alma sublime porque mi corazón repuesto de la angustia de vivir se promete la juventud eterna de los dioses. Nuestro cielo durará antes de reverse nuestras armas ligadas por sus insondables Honduras se había reconocido. Cuando envuelto por los sueños de la infancia apacible como el azul del día Dios descansaba sobre el suelo entidad bajo los árboles de mi jardín cuando empezaba la primera, la primavera de mi vida con suaves acordes de gozo y belleza el alma de Yotima como un séfiro basado en las ramas sobre mí. Y cuando tal una leyenda la belleza se borró de mi vida y me hallé indigente y ciego excluido de tanto paraíso con el peso del día me aplastaba y mi vida fría descolorida deseaba ya declinante el mundo reino de las sombras. Entonces el ideal volvieron como desde el cielo fue el sellánimo y apareciste radiante en mi noche, divina y margen. Dejando el puerto mundo para unirme a ti lancé de nuevo mi nave adormecida al azul del océano. Ahora he vuelto a encontrarte más hermosa que como te había soñado a las horas solemnes del amor noble y buena allí estás o pobreza de la fantasía sólo tú, naturaleza puedes crear este modelo único en medio de eternas armonías feliz en tu protección. Como los bienaventurados a sus altos parajes donde el júbilo busca refugio y florece la inalterable belleza liberada de la existencia con urania melodiosa en neo de caos desencadenado ella sigue divina y pura entre la ruina de los tiempos. Tras prodigarle todos los homenajes y espíritu confuso, tencido trató de conquistar a la que sobrepasa sus pensamientos más atrevios. Ardor, solar y dulceral, primaveral guerra y paz luchan en el fondo de mi corazón frente a esta imagen angelica. Muchas veces vertí ante ella oleadas de lágrimas de mi corazón y traté en cada acorde de la vida de vibrar al unísono con su dulzura. A veces herido en lo profundo imploré su piedad cuando el cielo que ella posee se abre claro y santo a mis ojos. Pero cuando en su silencio rico infinitamente con una sola mirada, una sola palabra, su alma transmite a la mía su paz y su plenitud. Cuando veo al Dios que me anima alumbraron el llame en su frente y vencido por admiración me acuso ante ella adivinada. Entonces su alma celeste me precipita en la dulzura de un juego infantil y bajo su hechizo mis cadenas se desanudan gozosamente. Así aparece mi pobre de nuevo y se borre el último rastro de mis luchas. Mi naturaleza mortal entra en la plenitud de una vida de Dios. Y en adelante mi elemento es ese donde ninguna fuerza terrestre, ninguna orden divina nos separa más allí donde sabríamos la unión total porque ahí tiempos, cálculos que nada valen necesidad son unidados. Por fin entonces me siento vivido. Así como la constelación de las trindaridas con majestuosos en pelleo prosigue su trayecto apacible como nosotros. En las alturas del cielo nocturno también declina anche brillante desde la bóveda del cielo hacia el orleaje donde la llama un dulce reposo. Y nosotros o ardor de nuestras almas encontramos en tu tumba bendicta nos avistamos en el orleaje exultante de un cubo a muro. Luego, cuando el llamado de la hora despierta o sea llenos de un orgullo nuevo volvemos como las estrellas a la noche breve de la vida. Thank you. Now you actually got the real push out of water experience because usually we don't have translation so we just listen to the sound of the language and I hope that you felt the love. Ok, our next poem brings us into the 20th century when I knew we had a French speaker I was trying to figure out what we could have her read and we've heard a lot about the tense relationship between France and Germany this week and so we chose a poem by Bertrand Precht an die Nacht gehobenen I won't read the French title but basically it means to those who were born after and I would like to introduce Nessor, you're here from the department of Italian and French who will perform this poem. Long, long time ago I was a student I studied Germanistic at the time when Berlin was still West Berlin and Bertrand Precht was one of my favorite authors so I'm very happy and grateful for the invitation to come and read this poem to you. So as you can see from the time where German uses three words we need sex in French to those who will come after us. Really, I've seen it in the dark times a language that embodies these signs of surty insensitivity the one who reads has not yet received the terrible news that it's time to talk about almost a crime because it's true. The one who is there passing quietly on the street is he therefore more excessive to his friends who are in distress? It's true, I still win what to live, but believe me it's no longer a coincidence to eat at the end nothing of what I do gives me the right by chance I'm the last that my luck is gone and I'm lost you eat and drink but how can I eat and drink when I remove what I eat at the end how do I miss the one who dies of thirst and yet I eat and drink I would like to be a sage in the old books he said what is wisdom to hold on to the rules of the world and without fear to spend his little time on earth to go his path in violence to the evil to not satisfy his desire but to forget them is also the best for him all this is impossible really, I come from a dark time I come to the cities at the time of disorder when the family was running I come among the men at the time of the moot and I insured myself with them so I spent the time that was given to me on earth my bread I ate it between the battles to sleep I spread among the assassins the love I gave to myself without further ado and in front of nature I was without indulgence so I spent the time that was given to me on earth from my time the streets led me to marraige the language denounced me I only had little to see but only masters who were 100 months more assured of the month I would hope to spend the time that was given to me on earth the forces were limited the goal was to stay in the distance to be visible although for me it was almost a painting so I spent the time that was given to me on earth you who are born of the flow where we have dark when you talk about our place in the dark time too where you are saved we were changing countries more often than allies through class wars desperate where there was only injustice and no revolt we know it hatred against the bassist also against the traitors anger against justice makes the voice rock and thus we who wanted to prepare the field to friendship but you when the time will come where man is man take his hands with indifference there is a multi-lingual reading of Götis Erkönig and I would like to welcome Professor David Bramling from our department and then Ethan and Chanala, Charlie, Sarah and Chris to read this with me don't see father the king of the elves the king of the elves collaborates with the trash my son is a strict nation do you the barn bear with me now red father like a like a pigeon my eldest son is full of flowers and my mother is dressed in purple my father Erkönig is the king of the elves they used to fly to the mountains for all the children to follow the barn the girls are ready to wait for the time the girls are going to dance and dance and dance my son is a wild man we have to kill the Christian he is not the king of the elves we have to kill the Christian I love you you can't hurt me you can't make me happy I'm going to take it my father my father is giving me pain I'm a father I'm a father I'm a father I'm a father I'm a father soil the child too much we would like to give you prizes for the posters foroshantal Kori for those who have not seen them there are numerous posters during the reception to go and have a look. This was a poster competition that was held across a couple of our 300 local courses. We had eight posters in total, 21 students. I think we had almost 22, we had one student who had two posters. And these topics were selected by the students themselves and all the way to the topic of Germany and Europe for this week. And it was a very difficult decision. We had to select two for the top prizes. And I know that in these moments you have to say it's a difficult decision, but this was truly a difficult decision. The students really went above and beyond. I think they were extensively researched and beautifully designed, as you'll see if you go out there. And they were all very conversant and eloquent in both English and German about the topics they had selected. But we did have to choose just two for the first and second place. So I'm gonna start with the second place. And that was a poster that was on the Polish Trafa. So the Death penalty, they researched the topic in how it relates in Germany and how that relates to the European context. And so the two students who did that poster presentation were Alyssa Thomas. Can you come by and come up here? And Catherine Herrera came on to first prize. The first prize was a poster that was on Globalization. So Globalization. And the students looked at that across three different countries and how they relate, oh, I'm sorry, the conflict. I'm messing it up. The conflict poster where they looked at how that relates to three different countries. They looked at the Ukraine, Greece, and France and compared how Germany's relations to these various countries, how they deal with conflict in different ways across these European countries. So the presenters, the poster, presenters for that poster were Reed Sasan. Can you come up here? I see all three of you here. Woo! They mentioned that there are cash prizes associated with the top two. However, since everyone did such a wonderful job, we do actually have a prize for all of the poster presenters. So if those of you who are still here, I see many of you still here, please come up and see myself and Charlie after this event and we'll make sure to give those to you and we'll be in touch with the rest of you about the prize. Can we please give a round of applause to all of those who please do go look at them during their section. They'll be beautiful. All right, well this almost concludes our program for today. I have my colleague. It's going to say a few words to close our program and then I hope to see you all at the reception. First of all, I want to thank everybody for coming on Friday afternoon. I want to give a special shout out to my own students. I'm a professor of political science and I don't think they'll attend events like this. I want to especially thank one of our costa. I hope that the higher ups have taken notice that we have here cross-cultural operating for which I think a special grant money available. You're having a great colleague and a great collaborator. I want to thank Alice Gantz for the design and the creating of the posters and the brochures and the website as well as running the audio-visual equipment. I want to thank the German clock volunteers for running the passport system very smoothly which is mostly for my own students. I would like to thank my own unit, the School of Government and Public Policy for sponsoring us, the German Embassy Information Center for funding us as well as the EU Center at the University of Colorado which was also very generous. And finally, as Barbara mentioned, we receive a call for submission of another grant proposal and we are purely reluctance for punishment. And I think that we will aim for another event this fall. This theme will be the 25th anniversary of the fall of the war. I want to thank all of you for making this a great experience and I think the reception is right for us.