In Leipzig, at a Tramway Stop

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Bir Üsküdar balkonunda guruba karşı demlenir gibi
Bir akşamüstü, Laypzig’te, tramvay durağında
Tadını çıkara çıkara, yudum yudum
kederleniyorum.
(Nazım Hikmet, 22 June 1958)

One of my favorite poems by the Turkish poet Nazım Hikmet is a short pang of longing for his home in Üsküdar, on the Asian shore of Istanbul, a longing evoked by a sunset he witnesses while waiting at a tramway stop in Leipzig. I never imagined when I first read the poem that I too would be standing at a tramway stop in Leipzig, more than fifty years after Hikmet did so. But here I am.

Hikmet, an avowed communist, spent much of his adult life in exile, including a brief stint in this second city of the GDR, Leipzig. Somehow, it seems appropriate that I’m following in his wandering footsteps as I learn the history of East Germany and the role of Leipzig in the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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Leipzig is a pretty town, once the “second” city of the GDR, famous as a center of trade and music (it is the hometown of Bach!). Although badly damaged by bombing during World War II, much of its pre-war architecture survived and is being renovated (scaffolding and cranes are everywhere). Apparently, it also suffered little of the socialist urban planning of other major cities in East Germany, like Berlin, since Honecker was not a fan of the place. He simply “neglected” Leipzig. Which, in a sense, “saved” it.

But we are staying in an area that is not exactly picturesque in the classical sense. Our neighborhood, Plagwitz, is a mix of post-industrial abandoned building and re-emerging commercial and residential zones, set well out of city-center; it serves as a somewhat gritty contrast to the old town. In order to get to the fairytale center of Leipzig, I must take a twenty-minute tram trip down to the Main Train Station.

Like Hikmet, I wait at a lonely tram stop, but I have yet, with these long summer nights, to experience a sunset while waiting for the tram. I suppose I still have time. But what will it make me long for, I wonder?


Note on the Tardiness of this Entry:

It takes only an hour by the fast ICE train to get to Leipzig from Berlin. But with a group of sixteen teachers, each lugging at least one large suitcase full of cloths and books; with the logistics of getting our weekly travel passes; and with unforeseen tram (mis)connections in Leipzig, the trip became a nearly day long endeavor. It wasn’t until nearly 4pm on Sunday afternoon - after meeting in Berlin’s Hauptbahnoff at 11am - that we finally, mercifully, arrived at our hotel.

Unfortunately, however, I promptly fell ill shortly after we settled in, which put me all but out of commission for the first day and half in Leipzig. I only managed (barely) to follow our scheduled tour of the revolutionary spots in the city and to take in a concert at the Nikolai Church (see next entry) on Monday before crashing into bed. But I am feeling better now, and have begun to make up for lost time in my explorations.

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Comments

[Gavin Plumley]

Shadow Cities
Andre Aciman is a brilliant commentator on triggers to memory... being a thoroughbred Proustian, he has often commented on the shadow of a city. Nazım Hikmet had such an epiphany in Leipzig, the sunset triggered the memory of home. However, what Aciman goes on to describe is even more far-reaching. He posits the idea that on returning to the 'remembered' place, there won't necessarily just be a sense of homecoming, but of a further involuntary memory of the place in which the memory stirred. Read Aciman's False Papers: Essays in Exile and Memory. That 'Shadow City' thing happens often in Bar Italia or in Louis in Hampstead! http://entartetemusik.blogspot.com/2008/09/bar-italia-part-of-shadow-city.html

[cemkess]

Shadows
Although I have yet to read False Papers, Aciman intrigues me. I will have to take a look at his idea of the Shadow City!