During the workshop we wrote a multilingual poem. First, we all brought poems from our own countries that dealt with the topics identity, belonging or minorities, and we presented them to one another. Afterwards, we decided to write one ourselves to sum up the ideas we had about the power and meaning of language.

Each "poet" wrote in her own language and just translated the last sentence, so the next person knew a bit about the stanza before. But nobody was allowed to read the rest of what the others had written or to ask for the content. In the end, we translated our own words into English, and surprisingly – it made sense!

The power of words: Original version

Listen to our recording of the original version of the poem:

Photo: copyright E&M

The original text of the poem: we folded the paper so that each person only saw the final line of the stanza which had been written before theirs.

Die Macht der Worte

Bedeutet auch,

Dass keine Worte

Keine Macht bedeuten.

Başka dilde konușmak

Kelimeler

Bizi ne kadar özgürleștirir ya da sınırlandırır.

Kullandiğimiz kelimeler ne kadar güçlü.

Un sentiment atât de tangibil şi de violent că vreau să fiu ca voi,

Dar că vă urăsc şi că îmi sunteți străini.

Suntem asemănători, dar sunt diferenţe pe care nu le pot ignora,

There is a point where we start speaking different languages.

Cruzar montañas, pasar fronteras

Alcanzar los mares, tocar las estrellas

Caminar solos entre la multitud

Sentirnos uno por una razón.

Doch Worte können uns auch trennen.

Und Gründe liefern, warum wir nicht zusammen passen.

Sarrazins und Camerons

Haben in Worten eine mächtige Waffe.

Słowo staje się narzędziem zbrodni

Jednym słowem można kogoś zabić

Jak irytującą muchę gazetą

Tylko jedno słowo – kara i nagroda:

My word is ‚box', the lost and found box.

I've thrown in it a bunch of words,

Romanian ones that I have lost,

And British sayings that I've found.

Turn over to read the English version of the poem.