Our eyes are two dry wells

Eyes – these two dry wells

Deep in the puzzled gazes there

once fertile sludge is hidden

The seedlings of love were

burned out through the fire of tears

We live on the other side of grief

Over the high wall, we watch

the sun from afar and

the mountains from afar

In the dreams of nights, we see

people from afar

Using the net of yearning we salvage

those scattered memories and then we let

the bones grow into the bones.

„By calling for a worldwide reading on 4 June 2013 for the Chinese underground poet, Li Bifeng, the international literature festival berlin is demanding that the Chinese government release him from prison” states a press release by internationale literaturfestival berlin.

The poet and campaigner for democracy, Li Bifeng, wrote a report in 1998 about a courageous group of textile workers who blockaded a Chinese motorway and sent a video recording of it to foreign human rights organisations. In 1989, after he had been involved in the protest on Tiananmen Square and on the run for six months, Li Bifeng was captured and sentenced to twelve years imprisonment for “economic crimes”. In November 2012, the 48-year-old was sentenced to another 12 years, with no good reason, without evidence and despite worldwide protests. The authorities suspect him of having helped his friend, the author Liao Yiwu and holder of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 2012, to escape to Germany in 2011.

In the short phases in which Li Bifeng has been able to write, he has written numerous poems, prose texts and plays as well as a novel. On the anniversary of the massacre on Tiananmen Square in Beijing , which took place on 4 June 1989, the Peter-Weiss Foundation for Art and Politics e.V. and the international literature festival berlin have initiated a worldwide reading for Li Bifeng. After a brief introduction to Li’s work and his biography, excerpts from his poems and prose texts will be read, as well as an interview with him carried out by Liao Yiwu in 2005 and published in the latter’s book “Die Kugel und das Opium” (En.: “Bullets and Opium”, German edition published by Fischer in 2005).

The following, among others, have already joined the ilb’s call for a reading: Ai Weiwei, Wolf and Pamela Biermann, Yasmine El Rashidi, Elfriede Jelinek, Liao Yiwu, Herta Müller, Salman Rushdie, Ha Jin and Peter Stephan Jungk. You can find the names of more supporters at www.worldwide-reading.com

13. internationales literaturfestival berlin | 04. – 14.09.2013

Chausseestraße 5, 10115 Berlin, Phone +49 (0) 30 – 27 87 86 65, Fax +49 (0) 30 – 27 87 86 85, presse@literaturfestival.com // www.literaturfestival.com