Allah has a hundred names

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Allah has a hundred names is a radio play by Günter Eich , which was broadcast on June 18, 1957 by SWF , BR and RB under the direction of Ludwig Cremer . The piece, which is about the search for the meaning of our life, was honored with the Karl Sczuka Prize in 1959.

content

Egyptian message in Damascus in the middle of the 20th century: A young man, in search of the hundredth name of Allah , was referred to Hakim by the Prophet . The Egyptian Hakim does not know the hundredth name either and throws in that the prophet died over thirteen centuries ago. A dead cannot send out a living. In addition, the caretaker Hakim actually has no time. He is about to sweep the embassy stairs, but meanwhile he tells the young man how he got the name.

Thirty years ago - as a 17-year-old - Hakim had survived a poison attack and on the occasion won his wife Fatime because he had listened to a voice. That voice, which turns out to be that of the Prophet, had warned him against the intention to murder his future father-in-law, the Imam of Alamut . The Imam had had their relatives - troublesome potential heirs - poisoned in droves. Hakim had fled to Fatime's room and, thanks to the practical sense of the beautiful young girl, remained undiscovered. During the flight of the young couple from their father and the rest of their relatives, the voice had persuaded them to start a fish trade in Damascus as a profitable economic base. When the fish business flourished even across borders, Hakim had been relieved from the voice to the most strenuous activity on earth, idleness. From then on, Fatime had proven to be a skilled businesswoman.

Determined to fathom the hidden secret of the world, i.e. the hundredth name of Allah, the voice of Hakim conducts from Syria to Paris. There she sends the young Egyptian to three addresses one after the other. The Catholic master shoemaker Albert Dupont, an unbeliever, makes a pair of wonderful green boots for the habitual sandal wearer Hakim, in the restaurant "Au Poisson Rouge" the Creole cook Janine creates a delicious roast veal for him and in the brothel Rue du Beau Soupir 18, husband Hakim spends with her Whore Ninon a magical night. When Hakim continues to ask for the hundredth name, none of the three Parisian gentlemen can be addressed. The shoemaker has died, Janine was kidnapped by the gastronomic competition for her cooking skills and Ninon is over the mountains with the Francs from Hakim's wallet. At the time, Hakim still suspects that the Prophet must have made three mistakes in addressing the address.

At home in Damascus, Fatime was given the wrong advice by the voice. It happened very quickly. The experienced businesswoman stood there empty-handed. But Fatime was lucky in misfortune. The position of cleaning lady in the Egyptian embassy had just become vacant. Hakim, who had returned home penniless, had been taken over by the ambassador, a literary friend. In his spare time, both Egyptians work on a scientific work on Arabic swear words; especially those with a Damascus impact.

But, asks the young man on the steps of the embassy three decades later, what is the hundredth name? Hakim replies: “You have to translate if the original cannot be understood.” That means that the name you are looking for could perhaps stand for what is worth striving for in a human life. The youth looks a little perplexed. After the green boots, roast veal and cohabitation, Hakim suggests the next example of something worth striving for. He puts the broom in the boy's hand. The stairs should shine anew every day.

Productions

reception

  • After it was first broadcast, the radio play was discussed in a number of daily newspapers. Wagner names fifteen newspaper articles.
  • At the end of his table of contents, Schwitzke writes that Hakim sees the hundredth name “in everything that is beautiful and good”.
  • The humorous search for a word inevitably culminates in attempts to translate, since the translator cannot recognize the original word until the moment of his death at the earliest.

literature

expenditure

Used edition

  • Günter Eich: Allah has a hundred names (1957) . P. 343–386 in: Karl Karst (Ed.): Günter Eich. The radio plays 2. in: Collected works in four volumes. Revised edition. Volume III . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1991, without ISBN

Secondary literature

  • Heinz Schwitzke (Ed.): Reclam's radio play guide. With the collaboration of Franz Hiesel , Werner Klippert , Jürgen Tomm. Reclam, Stuttgart 1969, without ISBN, 671 pages
  • Sabine Alber: The place in free fall. Günter Eich's moles in the context of the entire work. Dissertation. Technische Universität Berlin 1992. Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1992 (European university publications. Series I, German language and literature, vol. 1329), ISBN 3-631-45070-2
  • Sigurd Martin: The auras of the word-image. Günter Eich's mole poetics and the theory of inadvertent reading. Dissertation University of Frankfurt am Main 1994. Röhrig Universitätsverlag, St. Ingbert 1995 (Mannheimer Studien zur Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft, Vol. 3), ISBN 3-86110-057-6
  • Hans-Ulrich Wagner: Günter Eich and the radio. Essay and documentation. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 1999, ISBN 3-932981-46-4 (publications of the German Broadcasting Archive ; Vol. 27)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karst, p. 764, below
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 385, 7th Zvu
  3. ^ Wagner, p. 305
  4. ↑ Karst, p. 764 below
  5. ^ Wagner, p. 307, left column
  6. ↑ Schwitzke, p. 188, 3rd Zvu
  7. ^ Martin, p. 146, 9. Zvu
  8. ↑ Alber, pp. 122-123