Farhad Showghi (Germany)

Farhad Showghi's poetry can be described as surreal: in his poems, sweaters breathe, feet are questioned if they ever existed, and flowers grow out of the carpet. These original poems make you think as a reader; in the real world, some things are impossible, but in Showghi's poetry, truly anything is possible.

What does it mean, 
inhabiting a room? 
How long should I
look out the window? 

Farhad Showghi (b. 1961) was born in Prague, spent his childhood in the German town of Bad Aibling at the foot of the Alps. In 1966 he moved with his father to Tehran, which lies on the Elboer high mountains. In 1978, as a young man, he returned to Germany where he works as a psychiatrist and author in Hamburg. These precise geographical details are not without reason. The mountain landscapes play an important role in his poetry. His first collection, Die Sekunde ist eine bewohnbare Provinz (1987), Showghi wrote when he was twenty-six. Seven more collections followed, for which he received several literary prizes. For Wolkenflug spielt Zerreißprobe, he received the prestigious Peter-Huchel Prize in 2018. In addition to being a poet, Showghi is a translator of Persian poetry into German, such as the work of "the poet for freedom" Ahmad Schamlu (1925-2000).

This hour you will also see Rachel long (UK) perform.