Übergangsritus

My life, which I will not live, weaves me facial features, and we devour each other. The lyrical self in this volume wants to speak of wings, as it is stated in the poem "Zur Eröffnung" - lifted from its own body, it gains an overview for its observations. Abdahlrahman Alqalaq's poems and his narrative often carry a bitter tone; they deal with war, flight, and life in exile, but they also do not want to forget the tender moments. They trace the old homeland, the distance that has piled up between the self and it, confront the new one, and remember friends. But that is how it is, the exile syndrome: I cannot rise and I cannot sink. Life in exile appears as a life in an in-between space, which the language follows in resonant images, sometimes finer, sometimes more intense, but always one thing: intense. The absent takes shape. My apartment does only one thing: it reminds me of things that are not there. The walls, the stairs, the window handles, door knobs, furniture edges, the empty sofa, broken shadows on a table with two chairs. Everything points to what is missing and wants to drive me to madness. At some point, the absent takes shape, and one speaks to it and wagers: Who among us is more present in this apartment?.