Poets Translating Poets

An NCPA & Goethe-Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai Presentation

The Poets Translating Poets Festival is a multilingual poetry festival by the Goethe-Institutes in South Asia, in collaboration with the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin / Haus für Poesie, featuring 50 poets in 20 languages from 5 countries across South Asia and Germany. Beginning in November, a series of poetry-centric events is being organised in collaboration with partners – poetry initiatives, arts organisations, performance venues, art galleries, as well as in schools and colleges – across Mumbai and will culminate in a three-day festival from 25-27 November, 2016.

The Festival opens with a Liederabend concert by renowned vocalist Benjamin Appl, and accompanied by pianist Simon Lepper. Liederabend dates back to the 1800s, when musicians and lovers of music found high inspiration in poetry and would gather and sing German “art songs” called “Lieder”. The evening’s programme will feature songs written by Heinrich Heine and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and composed by Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann.