Dear Michael,

Do you remember that you promised me last year that I will become famous for the translation I did of this essay by Lars Gustafsson, about the Berlin Wall ? You told me that Gustafsson will probably receive one of the next Nobel prizes for literature. I had to remember your prognosis today, when on my walk through Stockholms old town I passed along Sweden Book Shop. During a rather long walk from the university through Norrmalm the weather was nice and dry, but when I arrived in the old center a chilly rain started. The shop windows of Sweden Book Bookshop looked very hospital and therefor I decided to look inside for shelter from the rain. The shop is specialized for Swedish literature, and there was a big collection of books on display by the 2011 Nobel Prize winner Thomas Transtroemer. To be honest, I did not knew him before, I can not even remember having heard about him in school during the Swedish lessons. But he is a Swedish writer, isn’t he ? I just would like to know how long I have to wait to see Lars Gustafssons name on the news paper head lines and his books in the shop windows decorated with a Swedish flag, a Pegasus and a copy of the Nobel medaille? I’d like to show my parents that with the translation of Mr. Gustafssons text I not only did something that I enjoyed a lot, but also that I made the right guess of the most recognised contemporary Swedish author.

Take Care
/ghazal

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Ghazal, my Dear,

I’m not sure if it is good to tell you how much I was surprised to read that you took shelter from the rain in a book shop. Not in a fashion store, not in Addidas or H&M or Victorias Secrets outlets, let alone in a sweets bar like Coffee Break French or Cake Studio, all of which I am sure would also be around Stockholms old center when the cold rain cought you.
During the last two years you made a tremendous transformation, my dear. When you have been here in Munich in the summer 2010, you shocked me with the confession that you hate to read books. Last september, suddenly, you told me how much you enjoyed to read Charlotte Brontes “Jane Eyre”. And now you even looked for shelter in a book store, initially simply to escape the cold rain, but once inside you began to look for a book by Lars Gustafsson, the great Swedish writer about whom we talked about two years ago.

When I heard last year that another Swedish writer, Thomas Transtroemer (whom I knew perhaps even less than you did) was awarded the Nobel prize, I was disappointed and even got angry with the decision of Swedish Academy. I strongly believe that Lars Gustafsson deserves the honour to the best contemporary writer, at least from Sweden. But we are perhaps not the only people who like good books but don’t really feel that the list of Nobel prize winners is of big use as a recommendation (the only exception was Gabriel Garcia Marques, the books of whom I really discovered only after he received the prize).

Every year the world of readers like us, but also literature critics and book traders hope that one of their favorite writers will finally be selected by the Swedish Academy to receive the most prestigeous international award for literature. But usually, the surprising news that are always released one day in October cause eyebrow raising rather than a celebration, and too often people have to listen twice to realize that in fact they have not heard the name of the winner before. Usually, it is not the artistic quality of the books who guides the Swedish Academy to their decision, but clandestine political reasons.

Therefor, writers who coined the 20th century literature and became essential members of the world-wide cultural canon, such as James Joyce, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Franz Kafka, Berthold Brecht, Marcel Proust or Vladimir Nabokov, were permanently ignored by the Stockholm board of old school teachers. Other writers, which are largely forgotten today, were awarded the price apparently more with the intention to give them publicity and financial support. Otherwise, the small readership of their books and limited success would let them vanish into oblivion. The motivation of the Academy to give the price to them reminds me a lot of the socialist way of providing support and resources: Help those who show missing success, and refuse support to those who are successful. Who still remembers the names of – or even read a book by – Nobel price winners such as Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson, José Echegaray, Giosuè Carducci, Verner von Heidenstam, Carl Spitteler, Jacinto Benavente, Grazia Deledda, Vicente Aleixandre, Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Roger Martin du Gard, Frans Eemil Sillanpää, Saint-John Perse, Patrick White ? And who really trusts that Hertha Mueller, J.M. Gustave Le-Clesio or Derek Walcott will have a big readership after their books are removed from the shop windows of “must-known” Nobel-price winners and returned to the back-room bookshelfs or even further away into the Amazon category of “currently not available” items ?
It is also no big surprise that a strong bias exists related to the nationality of the Nobel prize winners. Since the Swedish Academy board is exclusively made up of Swedish authorities, they have a preference to give the award to writers from their own or other skandinavian countries. During the last 110 years Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland together had 15 Nobel prize winners among their authors. Sweden alone had 8, the same number as the United States. Does this imply that Swedish literature is as influential as the North American ? This of course would be a very subjective judgement, but some more statistics might help here, since numbers are just numbers and they tell you only facts (for the same reason you did the statistical genetics during your MSc project). If we relate the frequencies of literature Nobel prizes in Sweden and the US to the population size of both countries than we come to the surprising conclusion that a Swedish person has a more than 30fold higher chance to be selected for the prize than anybody from the US. So if you are a writer and reach for the Nobel prize, you should try as quickly as possible to get a Swedish citizenship. If you are  american, than better reach for something else (like the Oscar for the best movie script). Does this mean that Swedish people have a 30 times greater literature talent than Americans ? According to Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, this is the true. In an interview in 2008 he declared that “Europe still is the center of the literary world” and that “the US is too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature.“

No other country has received more Nobel Prizes for literature per capita than Sweden, and in absolute numbers is more succesful than all of Asia, as well as all of Latin America. There is just one exception, better described as a singularity. And this is Lars Gustafsson, whom the Swedish Academy with mind shaking consistence refuses its recognition. There is no doubt about the exceptional literature qualities of Mr. Gustafsson, about his influence on other writers worldwide and his recognition by readers, critics and academics in his own country and abroad. He is both a very productive writer with a broad horizon and interest in psychology, natural science, politics and history, and a great entertainer. His novels and stories deal with issues of our modern society, but are narrated in a fine and classical style. And all of his books are at least in part cosmopolitan. And here starts the problem of the Swedish Academy with their own compatriot writer Lars Gustafsson: He “deflected” for 23 years to the US, where he was lecturer at the University of Texas in Austin. He also lived for two years in Berlin and made several extensive trips to other countries. Reading his books like “The Tennis Player”, “The Dean” or “Bernard Foy’s Third Castling” shows that his style of writing and his sujets and his views about the individuum and the society is much closer to the contemporary US literature than to the scandinavian world. And this is the reason why the Swedish Academy ignores this great writer from their own country with stubborn resistance. In this view, literature as a global medium of communication has a poor stake in the Swedish Academy.

Take Care, my dear            Michael

Thanks for your nocturnal e-mail, for every single word. We had a big meeting in the helmholtz-center yesterday night, it was on the occasion of fusing four institutes into a Department of Radiation Research. It was a big reception, but it was very political (what is not my favorite). I came home quite late, and the more I was happy reading your mail.

Recently I thought of you, when I watched an old hollywood-movie, “Anna Karenina” from 1935. It was re-filmed since then many times, but none of the newer versions (like the recent from 1997 featuring Sophie Marceau) came close the early one from 1935 with Greta Garbo (I think it is considered among the top 100 important movies of cinematography). I don”t know if you (after Breakfast at Tiffanys) are willing to watch another old movie, that is even 20 years older.
Greta Garbo (also nicknamed “the great Garbo” or the Divine”) reminded me of you, how she arrived in the movie the first time, through the steam of the train. She had the same extraordinary expression in her eyes and her face as you have, a sort of enigmatic aristocracy, as if she came from another world.
What is a funny coincidence: her real maiden name was Gustafsson, so maybe she was a relative to Lars Gustafsson. I think I have to ask him. Or do you think, that Gustafsson is a too common name in Sweden ? But Greta Garbo (former Gustafsson) did not looked typical swedish, for my feeling she looked more oriental or south european. And before going to Hollywood, she lived in Stockholm.

I hope you don”t mind that again I tell you things you have not asked me about. I hope you are well up, that you fill your days with pleasure and your nights with exciting dreams.

TAKE CARE

Michael

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dear michael,

I did not know that Greta Garbo was such an international star. I remember that, quite often when we went to the center of Stockholm with my family, we passed along a little memorial that show a very pale face, and this was commemorating Greta Garbo.

To be honest, I never watched a movie with her, but my parents told me that she was a famous swedish actress of last century. But it was a long time before I was born. And on the memorial plate she looks a bit sad and cold, so I was never tempted to see her acting in a film. But I like the short scene from “Anna Karenina” that you send from youtube, where she arrives by train and suddenly appeares through the steam.
Do you know that, when I arrived the first time in Unterschleissheim by train, and you met me there to help with my luggage, I was feeling the same ?
I had many doubts, I felt lonely and was afraid to be on my own for the next month without my parents. It was good that you came to meet me, not just to carry my suitcases.
Platforms and trains are always the same, does not matter whether in Russia 100 years ago or in Munich in 2010. They all give you this impression of arriving at an unknown, hostile place, but later you stand there again on the same platform and have to leave this place, just when you got comfortable with it.

Hope you have a nice day and night

Take Care

/ghazal

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Ghazal my Dear,

That”s strange: when I watched the movie recently I somehow knew that it was not just Greta Garbos eyes and the expression on her face that reminded me of you. I could not tell where this strong feeling of a deja-vu came from. But now you gave me the solution, Ghazal. It was the very scene when Greta Garbo (aka Anna Karenina) arrives by train and she and Wronskij see each other for the first time, and both are like struck by a lightning.
Now I know it was very much like the day in May when you arrived here, and I was waiting for you on the train station. I probably was shivering, when I saw you leaving the train, while Wronsky in a typical soldiers manner looked more frozen to a stone statue.
When you said that you did not felt very confident about the project in Munich and how to live here on your own for 6 month, I tell you one could not recognise these doubts on your face. You looked very aristocratic, as usual, very calm and confident. But only later I understoud how experienced you are in hiding emotions.

Take Care, Ghazal

Michael

Diesen Montag, genau 2o Jahre nach dem sogenannten Fall der Mauer (oder “Mauersturz” wie es im Schwedischen genannt wird) endet ein ganzes Jahr voller Erinnerungsveranstaltungen, mit extra dafür geschriebenen Büchern, mit Augenzeugeberichten, Ausstellungen und jetzt mit einer Reihe von Konzerten. Und diese Veranstaltungen werden sämtlichst an historischen Orten stattfinden: Auf dem Platz vor dem Reichstag, am Brandeburger Tor und auf dem Potzdamer Platz. Natürlich mit einem Feuerwerk, und mit prominenten Rednern wie Michael Gorbachov und Hans-Dietrich Genscher, mit Rockmusik und der Staatskapelle Berlin unter seinem Dirigenten Daniel Barenboim. Aber es wird auch Veranstaltungen mit einem gewissen Witz geben, wie zum Beispiel eine anderthalb kilometer lange Mauer aus bunten Dominosteinen, die dann ebenfalls umgestossem werden wird, fast so wie es mit der richtigen Berliner Mauer geschah. Das wird voraussichtlich bei allen echten Berlinern grossen Jubel auslösen.
Denkt dann wirklich noch jemand, dass das alte Westberlin irgendwie interessanter war mit seinen Agenten und seinen Künstlern, oder dass die frühere DDR tatsächlich idyllischer und schöner war, mit seinen Plattenbauten und seinen Trabantenstädten ? Gibt es noch jemanden, der sich die Schüsse an der Mauer und versteckte Mikrophone zurück wünscht ?
In den Tagen während dieser Feierlichkeiten wohne ich in einer grosszügigen Etagenwohnung in Schöneberg, deren hohe Räume einen ähnlich hallende Akustik haben wie das Stockwerk, in dem ich nur 500 meter entfernt im November 1972 wohnte. Dort war ich ständig mit Schreiben beschäftigt und dort entstanden meine beiden Bücher “Yllet” und “Sigismund”. Der einzige Unterschied ist der grosse Park hier gegenüber, der jetzt in den schönsten Herbstfarben erstrahlt. Und die fast ausserirdische Kälte, nicht zu vergessen.
Dieses Berlin des Jahres 2009 ist eine fast völlig veränderte Stadt. Und von vielen Berlinern hört man, dass sie selber das Gefühl verspüren als wären sie von einer Stadt in eine andere umgezogen, ohne sich selbst wirklich fortbewegt zu haben.
Besucher aus Schweden, die in den70er Jahren aus Ostberlin zurückkehrten, waren oft voller Begeisterung. Egal ob Seeleute oder Kirchen-Mitarbeiter, sie alle brachten scheinbar neue Ideen von dort mit. So übernahmen wir aus Ostberlin zum Beispiel die Idee der “Einheitsschule” (schwedisch “Einhetsskola”). Und vom Theater am Schiffbauerdamm kamen neue Impulse von den Aufführungen der Stücke von Brecht.

Wenn man sich jetzt die Reste der Mauer auf den Zeitungsbildern anschaut, wirkt das ja sehr pitoresque mit all den Graffities, als wäre die Mauer in erster Linie als eine riesige Freifläche für künstlerische Experimente errichtet worden.
Zu leicht vergisst man dabei, dass es hinter der für uns immer bunt bemalten Vorderseite auch eine Rückseite gab, die nur grau war und die zusammen mit einem Mienenstreifen und Selbstschussanlagen eine absolut tödliche Zone darstellte, verziert mit Stacheldraht and Scheinwerfer-Anlagen. Das war die eigentliche Mauer, und diese richtete sich, einmalig in der Welt, nicht gegen eine Bedrohung von Aussen, sondern zielte nach Innen, auf seine eigenen Bewohner.
Die Selbstschuss-Anlagen, wahrscheinlich ein Begriff der wegen seiner
Abstrusität nur in wenige fremde Sprachen übersetzt werden musste, waren geschickt konstruierte Geräte, die an Pfosten entlang des Grenzstreifens angebracht waren und durch elektrische Kontakte ausgelöst auf einen Grenzflüchtlig eine tödliche Salve von Schrottschüssen abgeben konnte. Diese Anlagen arbeiteten nicht nur äusserst “effizient” 24 stunden am Tag ohne erkennbare Ermüdunsgerscheinungen, sondern sie befreiten auch das Grenzpersonal von der unliebsamen Pflicht, selber einem Schiessbefehl Folge leisten zu müssen.

Ich erinnere mich, wie ich eines Morgens irgendwann im November 1972 in der Feiherr-von-Stein Strasse zu Frühstück ein Buch las und miterlebte, wie zwei junge Leute in dem Wasserlauf entlang der Grenze ertranken, nachdem sie auf ihrer Flucht durchs Wasser von tödlichen Schüssen der Grenzer getroffen wurden, und wie die Westberliner Feuerwehr untätig zuschauen musste, weil es ihr nicht erlaubt war, mit dem Schlauchboot auf das Grenzgewässer hinaus zu fahren um die Verletzten zu retten.
Am Grenzübergang Friedrichstrasse gab es immer beleidigende Situationen, wenn die Grenzpolizisten erst unter dem Zug alles mit Spiegeln und Lampen an langen Stäben absuchten um sich dann dem Inneren unserer Koffer zuzuwenden, in denen ja verbotene Bücher wie F.Nietzsche versteckt sein könnten. Mich würde sehr interessieren, wie meine jungen Mitstreiter in der schwedischen Piratenpartei sich wohl damals verhalten hätten.
Nachdem dann diese Mauer gefallen war, kamen viele Geheimnisse ans Licht, die vorher unverständliche Ereignisse plötzlich durchschaubar machten. So weiss man jetzt, dass der Polizist, der den Studenten Benno Ohnesorg während einer Anti-Schah Demonstration erschoss, in Wirklichkeit ein bezahlter Mörder des Ostens war. Westdeutsche Terroristen bekamen Unterstützung von staatlichen Stellen der DDR und Schriftsteller schrieben mehr Spitzelberichte als Belletristik.
Kurz und gut, der Fall der Berliner Mauer war ein gewaltiger Sieg der Freiheit, und wie der Paukenschlag in der Ouverture Leonora 3 zu Beethovens Fidelio, beendete er ein langes und sehr schmerzhaftes Ringen um Selbstbestimmung, das nicht in Deutschland, sondern bereits 10 Jahre früher in Polen, Ungarn und der Tschechoslovakei begonnen hatte.
wenn am Abend des 9. November die grosse Party am Brandenburger Tor beginnt, ist eine endgültige Bewertung dieses Umbruchs aber immer noch schwer zu erhalten. Soll man wie Tenger sagen. “Die Wahrheit setzt sich durch” ? Oder es eher mit Hans Magnus Enzensberger halten und seinem “Der Sozialismus funktioniert nicht. Punkt. Aus.” ?

Lars Gustafsson, 09-11-2009, 12:43
(english translation A.F.
german translation M.R.)

Befor too much time passes away, I further translated the text by Lars Gustafsson (which you brought into English some month ago) and put a german version on my blog. I also send it to Mr. Gustafsson, maybe he uses it further. Do you also want your english version have it published ? The reason I did it today was that in a few days will be the 21st anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

Ghazal, my Dear, I suspect you are not too much involved in these political events. Thats fine, I understand this.
If possible, one should try to use this precious lifetime for creative things, rather than to fight against walls or against political unjustice. Unfortunately, too often the political circumstances dont allow us to live in peace, and one is reminded on the poem by B Brecht:
WHAT AWFUL TIMES I AM LIVING IN,
WHEN TALKING ABOUT TREES IS ALMOST IMMORAL
BECAUSE IT IMPLIES NEGLECTING SO MANY CRIMES.
(B.Brecht: An die Nachgeborenen)

Hope you are fine, and happy and in a sort of harmony with the world and your life.
In case not, maybe you can dream of it, and this can help to make it come true.

Sleep well, Take Care,
Michael.

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Hi michael,

I did not know so much about the Berlin Wall and what happend there, I think I was much too young when this was an issue. You are right, I am probably not very interested in politics, think that there are more crucial problems in my life. But maybe it is because here in Sweden there was never a lot of political fight. Therefore, it is only when I hear some news from other countries that suddenly can make me very angry, and then I would like to fight against injustice.

Maybe you heard about a case in Iran, that a woman, Sakine Ashtiani has been sentenced to death by stoning for alleged adultery. I was crying when I read this. I am probably very emotional in this case, since I know some of my relatives are living there and also I love the home country of my family a lot, for its people, its great cultural heritage and so on. And the more I got angry when I hear that an inhuman gouvernment in Teheran can keep people in custody, tortures them, kills them.

And yes, you are right, that when we hear about political crime or injustice, we can”t enjoy any more the nice things in life. For instance something very basic, but amazing like a meteor shower that is expected next week. I doubt it will be as impressive as the one we saw on August 24th in the park behind the Guesthouse, but who knows.
The Stjaernfallen expected in the night from 17th to 18th of November belongs to the Leoniden.

I”ll try to watch them in the night of the 17th, and in case you also go out, we may even spot the same meteors. Or do you think that I might see some here in Stockholm, and you see different ones from Munich? They should be the same, for my feeling. I mean we also see the same stars and moon and sun, why should we see different meteors then ?

For tonight, TAKE CARE
Ghazal

Do you enjoy the time at home ? What a question, of course you do.
Today is the first day that the rain stoped here in Munich. I think that there is just no water left in the atmosphere, it is probably dried out now and we might see the rest of the summer only dry earth and yellow gras. Hard to say, what is worse. Again, people were mainly watching football today in the coffee-room, somebody lost, somebody won, don”t ask me who and why and how. I think it all has to do with african Woodoo. Ghazal, I miss a lot the talks with you which are always inspiring and refreshing. How boring is football compared to this. Even writing just a few sentences to you gives me back the mental energy I loos when I hear the football noise.

Yesterday I went once again through the translation that you did from Gustafssons essay on Berlin, and I like it more and more. Do you mind, if I send it to Gustafsson to include it on his blog ? I would further translate from your english variant into a german text. There are always translations that readers of the blog did. I guess they have to be authorized by Gustafsson himself, in the worst case he might do some final corrections. Sorry, I forgot that you don”t care so much about books and written stuff, but I promise you, Ghazal, when Gustafsson will finally get the Nobel Prize in Stockholm at the Swedish Academy, your family and your friends will be extremely proud of you for beeing an approved translator. Come on, don”t tell me that you still don”t care. We are always seeking for fame, what is absolutely human, because we are social beeings to a larger or to lesser degree. Only an autistic person does not care about fame.

I”m afraid the longer messages I write you the less you are inspired to answer to them. I guess if you would say now “No e-mails any more, please. I just closed my Hotmail acount”, I would probably continue to write them just for my own reflections. It is the only moment during the day when I find some rest and can escape from the helter-skelter going on around me. I think everybody needs somebody to address its thoughts to. Some people probably still belief that they can talk to god, what is for me no option and I guess even the most religious people hardly can remember to have ever recieved an answer from god. You are sending an answer at least sometime, what is already much better. And sometimes you are even physically present to talk to.

Enjoy the evening

Yours Michael

It would be a blunt lie to say that I only write you now to check if my computer finally understands that there is a difference between an _ and an . in your mail address.
I checked today which e-mails were sent to this wrong address over the last weeks, and these were probably about 10. If I put them all together, they read like a diary.
I want to thank you once again for translating this difficult article by Gustafsson. If I would not know all the places that he describes, I would probably consider the text hard to understand same as you did.
I am a bit afraid that you are now a bit discouraged from reading more by this excellent author. But you should try. I remember the first book that I got from him was “The Tennisplayer”, I red it in the 80s while studying. It is a very entertaining story about the life at an american university. I found it in a bookshop in a small village, because books from western authors were always sold-out in big cities.
Ghazal, did you really said today that you don”t read books ? This cannot be, sorry, I don”t believe you. You are much to smart, and I”m sure that your parents consider books very important. Ancient Persia was a centre of knowledge written down in books and stored in libraries, and this was for two reasons: to warship the beauty of life, nature and man (in poetry) and to improve human knowledge (in scientific, medical and philosophic books). This was all done in Persia at a time, when in europe only dogmatism and religious intollerance was ruling the spiritual life. Ghazal, I”m really not trying to cheer you, but without the books that were kept in the libraries in Damaskus, Bagdad or Isfahan, we would lack a lot of our current knowledge.
Do you already have your ticket to Sweden ? I guess you are leaving on Friday, right ? I got the impression, that you go home quite regular every 3 weeks. Don”t tell me that you have to go because all your food has finished, therefore you have to visit your mom to get a fresh supply. Your poor parents might think that life in Germany is so dreadful and you suffer from malnutrition. I”d like to drive you to the IKEA pizza-corner before you go to Sweden, so at least you can tell everybody that pizzas are quite the same here and there. Whats about tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday ?

I hope you don”t find my messages somehow annoying. I don”t want to interfere with your life if you think I should not. I only want to entertain you, hoping that some of my stories are so silly that they make you laugh. If this happens, I would be completely satisfied.

Good Night Michael

When I received your e-mail tonight I realized that I must be a bit more careful in asking you for a favor. It was so nice that you helped me with the article by Gustafsson, but I feel guilty now that you spend your free time of the weekend for this. Unfortunately, I had absolutely no clue that the article about Berlin was written in such an philosophic language. You said that many words you have never heard before – I guess these are solely the Berlin-specific names of buildings, theaters, places etc. Usually, Mr. Gustafsson writes in a very poetic language for my feeling, as long as it has to do with his own life. But since he also worked as lecturer for philosophy in Texas and in Schweden, he probably switches for essays to a more theoretical and abstract language (like this in the article).
I don”t know how popular he is in his home country Schweden, maybe he is seen there as a difficult writer, not the one to become a bestseller. And I”m also afraid that his books are more appealing for male readers, he rarely writes about people that live a simple, happy life. Usually the figures in his books suffer a bit from the modern life and society, but they don”t fight against this situation, instead trying to get around this conflict by fleeing into a world of dreams and memories. Although this kind of literature is not mainstream, I tell you he will get the Nobel Prize. I hope he has still many years to live and write.

I was so relieved reading that you made a trip to Salzburg and exploited the sunny Saturday for this. Did you met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart there ? Sometimes an actor from the famous Salzburger Theater dresses up and walks through the city. Did you visited one of the amazing austrian Coffe-Houses ? These are the second home of many austrian writers and intellectuals and the breedingplace of their books. They like the special atmosphere there of a public place, that at the same time gave them an anonymous shelter.

I told you that we went to the concert of Greenday Friday night, that was me, my son and Iria. Iria met their friends, who came over from UK only to hear the group. Therefore most of the time I was alone with my son. For him it was the first big concert, before he was listening to music only from the computer or from his mobile phone. There were approx.40 000 people and it was very hot, I mean the spirit. It was a warm summer night, with a lot of show and firework. I have to admitt, that I am probably addicted to good music, and this Band from the US was very very good (I still regret that I only asked you by e-mail to come. It would have been much better just to grab your hand and take you to the concert !!). The music by Greenday has an absolute non-commercial base, it is very political, very strong without compromise. I”ll try to get some and bring it you.

I”m sure our communication will be a bit easier now that you told me I must take more attention to your correct e-mail address. Ghazal, its not exaggerating, but I send maybe one message every day the last weeks, obviously to a wrongly spelled hotmail-box of yours, and now have to realize that they all ended up somewhere in the cyber-labyrinth. I think I have them all still as copy on my computer, and if you want I can put them all on a CD for you. What a chaos. I probably confused your name at the hotmail-address with the same at the helmholtz-address (which comes with an . between first and last name, not with space). Strange enough, neither of the messages with the wrong hotmail-address came back with an error-message. I have to write and complaine to the hotmail-people: This can not just cause a privat confusion, but who knows, maybe if politicians exchange there letter through hotmail and things go awkful, this might cause international crisis, economic decline and violent confrontations. Sorry, I”m talking silly things.

Sleep well, see you tomorrow

Michael

Yesterday was a wonderful day, I went to Salzburg with chrysi and some other flatmates.Today I just rested. So you were in the institute.
Actually it is not that hot in the guesthouse. Just sometimes.
Thank you for the suggestion of going to the castle though, you really like the castle!

I think you are sending to the wrong email address. my address is: ghazal_f@hotmail.com
I listened to your music, thank you. It was a bit different for me but it was nice.
Yes Chrysi found one lake in Unterschleissheim she said. But this week it will rain.

I tried to translate the text you wanted me to translate. It was hard. some of the words I had never heard.I attached it.

Take care and see you tomorrow.

Regards
Ghazal F.

I hope you have a nice weekend. Have you planned something ? In case you have a free minute, you might do me a little favor. There is an swedish writer, Lars Gustafsson, whom I like a lot and read everything available (some experts think, that he should be the next nobel prize winner for literature). He also has an Blog on the internet, that I found recently. Although he fluently writes english and german as well, most of his Blog articles are in swedish. There is one article, I would be interested to understand it, but it is swedish.
I vaguely understand the title that probably means “Long lives the free Berlin” (Gustafsson lived in Berlin for some years). The link to this Blog article is here .
For you it must be easy to read this article. I would be very pleased if you could tell me something like its essence. It does not need to be immediately, do it whenever you have nothing better to do (You see, I take it already for granted that there will be a moment at all when you have nothing better to do. It might be, that translating an article is the least you wanted to waste your time with).

In case you change your mind about the Greenday concert, just give me a call (0173-9009656). We will start our odyssee at about 6.30 or 7 p.m. tonight. But if you want to join later, I can always come back to pick you up.

Michael