DEAF REPUBLIC, THE LIVES OF OTHERS

Kaminsky quote on silence

Silence is the invention of the hearing.

We Lived Happily During the War

in the house of money // in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money, / our great country of money

Deafness, an Insurgency Begins

families of the arrested hang homemade puppets out of their windows.

A Bundle of Laundry

Alfonso’s body still hangs from a rope like a puppet of wind.

The Trial

Doors and puppets dangling from their handles, a puppet for every shot citizen.

Gunshot and And Yet, on Some Nights

Our country is the stage.

Tracy K. Smith

It hurts to read these poems- and find the world I belong to stricken by a contagion of silence.

American police brutality

Philando Castile, 2016

Gunshot

The sound we do not hear lifts the gulls off the water.

The Townspeople Watch Them Take Alfonso

They take Alfonso / and nobody stands up. Our silence stands up for us.

Hempf on art

What is there to write about in this new Germany? Nothing to believe in, nothing to rebel against

Beethoven’s letter to his brothers

Heiligenstadt Testament

Dreyman on music

Can anyone who has heard this music, I mean truly heard it, really be a bad person?

Lenin on Appassionata

But I can’t listen to music very often, it affects my nerves. I want to say sweet, silly things, and pat the little heads of people who, living in a filthy hell, can create such beauty.

Appassionata’s writing

1804-06

Wiesler to Dreyman

Just this once, my friend.

Donnersmarck on Wiesler

I wanted to make a film about a man that changes from an idealogue to a humanist.

Hempf on people

People don’t change.

Christa-Maria on art

But you get in bed with them, too. Why do you do it? Because they can destroy you, too, despite your talent and your faith.

Grubitz on Dreyman

But he’s loyal. If they were all like him, I’d be out of a job- He thinks the GDR is the greatest country on earth.

In a Time of Peace 1

to pick up the kids from school, / to buy shampoo / and basil.

In a Time of Peace 2

Ours is a country where a boy shot by police lies on the pavement / for hours.

Udo’s VoiceOver

‘Now I’ll have the strength, now I’ll do something.’ This likely refers to writing a new stage play.