Interview with Lutz Kliche, Ernesto Cardenal´s German traducer

Pan y Arte: “How can you handle the situation of reading behavior nowadays with the influence of modern media?”
Lutz Kliche: “I´m not a big fan of whitewashing the situation that we have these days referring to the reading habit. One has to answer to this problem like in many aspects of life with “Yes, but”.
Yes, it got more difficult, the reading habit is exposed to many difficulties, sure. And of course the internet is playing a very important role.
There is a beautiful quotation from Berthold Brecht which says with respect to culture:” We shouldn´t tie in with the good old past things, we should tie in with the bad new things.”
It is only possible when we understand the crisis as a chance. I think the media habit in general will change, while reading will always play a role. For sure the texts will change, for sure the literature will proceed, but that´s something pretty interesting as well.”

Pan y Arte: One thing that fascinates me here working as a volunteer, has been a reading project in a village called Malacatoya, started and supported by the Casa de los Tres Mundos, in which I felt an almost unknown enthusiasm for reading, for stories.”

Lutz Kliche:”Yeah, that´s a big movement here. Cuenta Cuentos, story-telling, the oral literature, has been in human´s history the very first literature. Already before there was written language, myths had been transmitted for ten thousands of years.
I recognized that with my own children. Story-telling, story-transmitting, that´s actually the most personal way to mediate literature. For me it was very fascinating when I came back from Nicaragua to Germany seeing the libraries filled up with books, with new stories. There are always new, untold stories! The richness of human relationships that makes stories, that´s the most fascinating point for me. That´s why I believe that it´s endless, this richness told by human beings.
We will always find a way to carry on doing that, visual ways, written ways, auditive ways…

Pan y Arte:”I would like to refer again to kids in Nicaragua, especially to the involved ones in literature and poetry projects of Casa de los Tres Mundos. If you could transmit them a message, which one would it be?”

Lutz Kliche:“My message would be that they write first of all only for themselves. Someone who is writing shouldn´t think about for who it´s for. It doesn´t matter if anyone will read it or print it. It´s important that one finds a proper way of expression. Writing is just very important to find a way to yourself.”

Pan y Arte:”What´s the poetry and the literature of Ernesto Cardenal for you expressed with three words?”

Lutz Kliche:” … Love, Revolution and Justice”

This interview with Lutz Kliche was leaded by Luzie Turwitt, Pan y Arte volunteer in the Casa de los Tres Mundos in Granada, Nicaragua.