The Poet and Suleika: A West-Eastern Dialogue in Poetry and Music

British Library, 23 May

with Nujoom Alghanem, Paul Farley and Don Paterson reading poetry from A New Divan and Simon Wallfisch singing Hafiz and Goethe Lieder, accompanied by Craig White

 Gingko’s two new volumes, A New Divan – A lyrical dialogue between East & West and a new annotated translation of the complete West-Eastern Divan, including Goethe’s original ‘Notes and Essays for a Better Understanding’, were launched at an evening of poetry and music at the British Library on 23 May.

‘The Poet and Suleika’ was the first of a series of events celebrating the publication of Gingko’s A New Divan, and featured three prominent participants this ambitious project: Don Paterson, one of Scotland’s greatest contemporary poets, writers and musicians; the Emirati poet and filmmaker Nujoom Alghanem, who wrote a modern version of the love duet between Suleika and Hatem; and Paul Farley, who produced the English version of the Raoul Schrott’s poem ‘suleika spricht’. This lyrical dialogue between East and West was matched by a musical one, with Hafiz poems, set to music by 20^th century German composers Gottfried von Einem, Viktor Ullmann and Richard Strauss, and Goethe Lieder sung by Simon Wallfisch accompanied by Craig White.