Trains of thought

Walt Whitman: Experiment in democracy

The GEDANKENZÜGE project, a collaboration between the Department of Cultural Studies at Dortmund University of Technology and DSW21, began in 2011 when stickers with literary quotations in six languages spoken and heard in Dortmund were placed on the roof slopes of the subway trains.

The texts on these stickers, which were displayed in many train stations for over ten years, were in the original language and in German translation and were written by important international authors: Chingiz Aitmatov (Russian), Ataol Behramoğlu (Turkish), Eduardo Galeano (Spanish), June Jordan (English), Ilse Kibgis (German) and Nagib Machfus (Arabic). The project was accompanied by various activities (readings, presentations) and led to many positive reactions from Dortmund residents and visitors to the city.

The second edition of GEDANKENZÜGE, again in cooperation between DSW21 and the Department of Cultural Studies at TU Dortmund University, is intended to contribute to cultural education in the city's multicultural society, emphasize its cosmopolitanism and support the urban integration process. After all, public transportation is a place where the whole city comes together: whether young or old, whether new to the city or a resident for many generations.

The second edition of GEDANKENZÜGE focuses on a social, political and cultural challenge that has intensified significantly in recent years. During this time, we have learned internationally and in our own country that democracy is neither natural nor self-evident. The increasing attacks on democratic principles and institutions around the world are forcing us to stand up for this - our - democracy as something worth preserving and fighting for.

Trains of Thought 2022 presented as part of Dortmund.live

Thought trains: Experiment Democracy on 27.05.2022 - Dortmund.Live

The formula "Experiment in Democracy" by the American "poet of democracy", Walt Whitman, points the way forward for this project. This experiment, as he wrote in 1871 in his cultural-political polemic Democratic Vistas, will have no lasting success if the "moral consciousness, the conscience", which is the "backbone of the state and its people", is missing. On the occasion of Whitman's 200th birthday on May 31, 2019, which we celebrated with a large party in Dortmund City Hall and at which Mayor Manfred Sauer welcomed the numerous participants, we presented texts by this poet on the subject of democracy. Students from the Department of Cultural Studies read Walt Whitman's poetry in 12 languages: Albanian, Arabic, German, English, Farsi, Greek, Italian, Kurdish, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish and Turkish. There was also Whitman art, Whitman music and Whitman films.

You can find a short summary of this event here:

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman (1819-1892), born in the US state of New York, was an American author of the 19th century. During the years of his work, the world was looking at the new experiment in democracy that had begun with the American Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, in which Thomas Jefferson (in a contemporary translation) stated: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." However, Whitman did not want democracy to be limited to his own country. Rather, in his great, globally oriented poem "Salut au Monde!", he addressed the entire world, all countries, regions, cities, nations and national minorities, people of all professions, origins, skin color and sexual orientation and called on them to follow his country's example. Although he was aware of the USA's pioneering role in democracy, he did not want his country to be seen as the dominant force in this process. Instead, he saw his poetry as cultural diplomacy that people all over the world should join.

The response to Whitman's lyrical message was tremendous. He was not only translated into the languages of Europe and not only into the dominant national languages. Translations of his works range from Welsh and Yiddish to Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Cambodian and Chinese. Whitman is "world literature" in the literal sense. The theme of democracy was combined with an extremely innovative lyrical language - since Whitman there have been rhymeless poems and poetry in free verse. He understood freedom not only politically, but also aesthetically and artistically. African-American writers of the 20th century felt particularly addressed by him; their lyrical dialog with the US-American author is wide-ranging and complex. Whitman's appeal to the gay movement and LGBTQ authors, who have increasingly made themselves heard nationally and internationally since the late 19th century, is similarly significant.

In addition to the original English language and the translation into German, we have selected Whitman texts in the seven languages that are significantly represented in Dortmund for the quotations in the context of GEDANKENZÜGE. In alphabetical order, these are: Arabic, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish and Turkish. We would also have liked to include other languages that are important in our city, such as Albanian or Kurdish. Unfortunately, this project could not have anticipated the rapid influx of people who speak Ukrainian - a language into which Whitman was also translated. The linguistic designation "Serbo-Croatian" does not ignore the differentiation of the language of readers in Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia - Whitman was also translated into Slovenian several times - but rather aims to emphasize the importance of the American poet for the literatures of all peoples of the former Yugoslavia. Whitman has also been translated into Spanish many times - our translation comes from a Spanish Whitman edition published by a Mexican publishing house in Barcelona; its translator is Ecuadorian.

As Whitman's German translation history also shows, translators play a special role in the international dissemination of Walt Whitman. In many cases, his translators were special, extraordinary people. The rule that people who are interested in Whitman also have something to say themselves is rarely wrong. Only in recent years has the literary world come to realize that translators are co-creators of literary texts who turn literary works into new works of art in translation. Our project would therefore like to pay special tribute to the contribution of translators.

Arabic

German

Italian

Polish

Russian

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Turkish

Contributors to the project

Design, development and organization of the project:

Walter Grünzweig, Julia Sattler (Department of Cultural Studies, TU Dortmund University)

Advice on texts and translations:

Ed Folsom (Iowa), Daphne Orlandi (Rome/Dortmund), Heinrich Pfandl (Graz), Marta Skwara (Szczecin), Bilal Souda (Dortmund), Efraín Villanueva (Dortmund)

Student contributors to text selection and arrangement:

Evelyn Lamch (Polish), Alina Starostin (Russian), Frano Škaro (Serbo-Croatian), Maria Lopez Perez (Spanish), Lamia Altay, Linda Saman and Tahmina Khudarayova (Turkish)

Members of the student "Global Whitman Project":

Çağla Akün, Maedeh Mirzaei Ataabadi, Matthias Baum, Melisa Bayramoğlu, Melanie Beerens, Tabea Bergschneider, Anna Brüning, Jonathan Büker, Paulina Busche, Anna Drom, Kim Gass, Isabel Hensel, Jens Hilger, Julia Hofsendermann, Melda Kavak, Laura May Konieczny, Vanessa Krefta, Carolin Maaßmann, Sarang Mußhoff, Carolina Narciso, Leonie Petermann, Lars Peters, Katharina Priestley, Sophie Rabelt, Fabienne Rink, Adrijan Ramay, Kathryn Simonds, Frederike Stiepermann, Friederike Unkenholz, Ursula Vormbrock, Samira Wessing, Marleen Wieland, Hanna Wördemann

Design

We would like to thank the employees of the akut agency for the design of the stickers and light rail vehicles.

We would like to thank Lea Roeing and Vera Pleßer (Department of University Marketing, TU Dortmund University) for the development and design of the website.

Whitman portrait

We would like to thank Stephen Alcorn and the Alcorn Studio & Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, for permission to use the portrait of Walt Whitman for this project.
www.alcorngallery.com

Resources

Probably the most comprehensive and detailed website dedicated to authors of world literature can be found on Walt Whitman. On the website maintained by Prof. Ed Folsom, University of Iowa, former Fulbright Visiting Professor in Dortmund, and Prof. Kenneth Price, University of Nebraska, you can find all his printed works in English and many in other languages; manuscripts of his poems documenting their development; secondary literature; all known photographs of Whitman, who was interested early on in the significance of the new medium of democracy; even a wax cylinder recording of Whitman's voice, converted into an mp3 file, with a reading of the short poem "America."

https://whitmanarchive.org

On the Whitmanweb of the University of Iowa's International Writing Program, you can find Whitman's long poem "Song of Myself" in 16 languages: Arabic, Chinese, German, English, Spanish, Persian, Filipino, French, Cambodian, Kurdish, Malay, Polish, Romanian, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian. Special mention should be made here of the Ukrainian translation.

The German-language complete edition of Whitman's works in the translation by Dortmund poet Jürgen Brôcan was published by Hanser Verlag.

Later in 2022, the first edition of Whitman's Blades of Grass, prepared by a group of translators at TU Dortmund University, will be published by Rimbaud Verlag in Aachen, which already has two Whitman publications in its program.

As a comprehensive edition in English, we recommend the Leaves of Grass: The Complete 1855 and 1891-92 Editions: A Library of America Paperback Classic, an inexpensive paperback.

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