Nach der Erklärung "Europa hat es besser" von Jürg Laederach und Angela Praesent während der Konferenz "Literary Translations: A German American Dialogue," Goethe House, New York City, April, 1992. Dort wurde auch gesagt, es soll jetzt ein neues "something in the air" in Europa geben, besonders unter den "new, bold and sassy Germans."

Europa hat es nicht besser, sondern...

Europa hat es ideologischer, es kann noch immer nicht
zwischen Theorie und Wirklichkeit unterscheiden und bleibt
nach wie vor bereit, nach Monarchismus, Faschismus und
Kommunismus beinahe jeder hochkultivierten, wohlklingenden
Schwulst zu folgen.

Europa hat es gewalttätiger, nach achtzig Jahren wird gerade
in Sarajewo, wo alles losging, wieder geschossen. Europa
versucht dringend, Amerika als ursprünglichen Schauplatz der Gewalttätigkeit zu erkennen, weil es etwas nervös gestehen muß,
daß Europa noch nie in seiner Geschichte eine so lange
Zeitspanne des Friedens (47 Jahre) erlebt hat und gar nicht
weiß, was jetzt kommen wird.

Europa hat es imperialistischer, weil es noch immer
versucht, zu beweisen, Europa sei der Mittelpunkt der
Weltkultur, auch sei es die Pflicht aller Einwohner der
blöden A-Kontinente, nur E-Bücher, E-Filme und
E-Theaterstücke zu kennen.

Europa hat es ausländerfeindlicher, denn es ist möglich, wenn
die Deutschen wirklich wüßten, daß unter der EG Millionen von
Spaniern, Portugiesen und Griechen in Deutschland reisen,
wohnen, und arbeiten könnten, daß die ganze EG schon morgen
scheitern würde .

Europa hat es nazionalistischer, denn es wird nur ein paar
Jahre dauern, bis Südtirol mit Österreich, Österreich mit
Deutschland, Kosovo mit Albanien und Mazedonien mit
Griechenland sich wiedervereinigen, und vielleicht ist das nur
der Anfang. Und wer ist eigentlich dieses "Europa," das
alles soviel besser hat? Ist es nicht ein Wohlklangswort
für irgendwelchen nazionalistischen Anspruch, wie deutsch,
schweizerisch, französisch, u.s.w.?

Europa hat es hochmütiger, was wir neulich gesehen haben,
war es vielleicht nur teilweise die Geburt von einem "new,
bold and sassy Germany" aber auch die Wiedergeburt des altherkömmlichen hölzernen und hochmütigen deutschen
Benehmen?

Europa hat es heuchlerischer, weil es sein Bild sowie seine
Geschichte nur in der Scheinspiegelung eines imaginären
Spiegels anschauen will.

Europa hat es toxischer, trotz schlechter
Ami-Umweltgesetze, ist es doch schlimmer in Europa, wird
man noch mehr vergiftet, mit der Folge, das neue "something
in the air" von Jürg Laederach sei nur Zigarettenrauch.

Europa hat es plumper, war es nicht vom Anfang an
unheimlich plump, so etwas wie "Europa hat es besser" für
sich in Anspruch zu nehmen, genau so plump wie der ugly
American, der immer "Everything is better in the USA"
prahlt: wär es nicht treffender zu sagen, Europa habe es
nicht besser, sondern es gebe dort viel mehr Besserwisser?

Stipendiat des Berliner Künstler-Programms, Alex Gross wohnte in Berlin als Writer-in-Residence, 1966-68. Sein Stück love-play wurde in München wie in anderen deutschen Städten 1970-71 gespielt. Er schreibt oft über Linguistik und Politik.

What follows is necessarily a loose and fairly idiomatic translation of the preceding prose-poem. While this piece is scarcely a great work of art, it does contain some basic word play that makes it resistant to exact translation. "Things in Europe are better" is simply not an adequate translation of "Europa hat es besser," and it it impossible to convey the pun on "besser" without throwing in a big hint in parenthesis that the German word Besserwisser—or "better-knower"—is actually the German word for "Smart Alec." Translation is by no means a precise art, and far more translations are inadquate in various ways than we would really like to think about, a theme expanded and expounded on in many of this website's selections, especially Part II of "Limitations of Computers as Translation Tools."

Based on the pronouncement "Things are better in Europe," as made by Jürg Laederach and Angela Praesent during the conference "Literary Translations: A German American Dialogue," held at Goethe House, New York City, in April of 1992. It also got said that a new "something in the air" supposedly now exists in Europe, especially among the "new, bold, and sassy Germans."

Things in Europe aren't really better. On the contrary—

Things in Europe are more ideological, they still can't tell the difference between theory and reality, and they're still just as ready as they always were, even after monarchism, fascism, and communism, to follow almost any highly cultivated bombast that comes along and sounds good.

Things in Europe are more violent, why they're even shooting again in Sarajevo, right where it all started eighty years ago. Those Europeans keep desperately trying to hold up America as the true home of violence, because they have to confess a bit nervously that Europe has never lived through such a long period of peace in its history, and they just don't know what comes next.

Things in Europe are more imperialistic, because they're still trying to prove that Europe is the center of all world culture, and it's still the duty of everyone who lives in those stupid "A" continents to look only at E-books, E-films, and E-stage-plays.

Things in Europe are unfriendlier to foreigners too, even to other Europeans, because it's possible that if Germans really knew that under the European Union millions of Spaniards, Portuguese, and Greeks could come to live and work in Germany, the whole European Union might fall apart tomorrow.

Things in Europe are more nationalistic as well, because it will only be a couple of years before South Tirol quits Italy and reunites with Austria, Austria reunites with Germany, Kosovo reunites with Albania, and Macedonia signs up with Greece. Anyway, who is this Europe, where things are so much better? Isn't "Europe" just a euphemism hiding almost any one of those old nationalisms, such as German, Swiss, French, etc.?

Things in Europe are more arrogant, what we've just been seeing here recently, could it perhaps have been only partly the birth of a "new, bold, and sassy Germany," but actually also the rebirth of traditionally wooden and arrogant German behavior?

Things in Europe are more hypocritical, because Europeans only want to see both their image and their history in the imaginary reflection of an imaginary mirror.

Things in Europe are more toxic—despite poor Yank environmental laws, those laws are even worse in Europe, and it could just be that Jürg Laederach's new "something in the air" might only be cigarette smoke.

Things in Europe are clumsier, after all wasn't it remarkably clumsy from the beginning to say something like "things in Europe are better." Just as clumsy as the "ugly American" always boasting that "Everything is better in the USA?"

Wouldn't it really be more accurate just to say:

"Things in Europe aren't so much better, it's just that they have far more people who think they "know better:" that's it, they have lots more "better-knowers" (Smart Alecs) than elsewhere.

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT:
This prose-poem is Copyright © 1992
by Alexander Gross. It may be
reproduced for individuals and for
educational purposes only. It may
not be used for any commercial (i.e.,
money-making) purpose without
written permission from the author.