Don't go to El Kuwehd

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Don't go to El Kuwehd! is a radio play by Günter Eich that was broadcast on Radio Munich on July 21, 1950 under the direction of Wilm ten Haaf . This most staged radio piece by the author appeared in the collection “Träume. Four games ”.

Driven by the unconscious , a rich man dies twice against all reason. A parable is dressed in an oriental style. With this, the author speaks to the listener's conscience: Five years after the end of the war, material possessions are once again one of the goods that can quickly perish. And the relationship master / servant can suddenly turn into the opposite in the course of time.

content

In the evening on the way from India to Damascus, the camel caravan of the wealthy merchant Mohallab meets the beggar Yezid shortly before the day's destination El Kuwehd. Mohallab disregards the beggar's warning and moves on to the El Kuwehd caravanserai . Fifty armed men protect one hundred and twenty camels, heavily laden with silk, carpets, skins and spices. There are only five days left to Damascus. Mohallab wants to take his beloved Fatime as his wife there. The traveler must always think of the beautiful - that is the sister of his partner Hassan. The image of the beloved fades. Mohallab's servant Welid comes to the rescue. Welid points to a veiled woman who is apparently like Fatime. The veiled woman waves to him. He follows her part of the way.

Exhausted from the ride to El Kuwehd, Mohallab oracles that he will never come to Damascus. Welid wants to allay his master's concerns. A maid appears in the caravanserai. Mohallab wants to visit his mistress, the veiled one. Against Welid's advice, the merchant follows the servant through the night. Infatuated by deception - that's the name of the veiled woman - Mohallab throws away his dagger. Fatal - Trug is the sister of the robber Omar and his decoy at the same time. The beggar Yezid is Omar's spy . The price of Mohallab's freedom is his caravan and ten thousand piastres. Omar sends Welid to Hassan in Damascus for the money

Meanwhile, Omar rides his prisoner Mohallab to Basra and sells him to Saad, the prince of the Parsees . Mohallab escapes and is captured. The prince forgives. The slave can continue to supervise the other slaves. Shirin - that is Saad's wife - falls in love with Mohallab. He persuades the princess to flee and betrays her: Welid rides off on Shirin's horse at the side of his former master. During the ride, Welid told Mohallab that he would marry Fatime in his place. The fugitive slave is caught again and receives the death penalty. During the execution, the delinquent wakes up from the dream and finds himself in the caravanserai next to Welid.

Almost everything is then repeated. Günter Eich only gives the beginning: The maid appears a second time. She should lead Mohallab to the prostitute who waved to him. Mohallab, who had again assured Welid that he would never come to Damascus, follows the maid again against the advice of his servant.

Quote

  • "It is a sign of wisdom to speak little."

shape

The rather long passage, starting when Mohallab follows the maid from the safe caravanserai to his first death (fall from the cliff of silence) is heard as a seamless dream sequence. At various points in the sequence, the attentive listener asks: Does the plot fall out of the realm of reality? To be more precise: Some things seem like a dream to the listener - for example, when Welid, who was sent to Damascus by Omar, haggles over Mohallab at the slave market in Basra. Or when Mohallab flees Basra with Welid.

Jens mentions the ring composition: The end refers to the beginning.

Günter Eich interweaves verses of Hariri .

Productions

Media adaptation

reception

  • Schwitzke gives the content.
  • Awakening from the dream, Mohallab would - trusting in his God - accept his fate .
  • Alber compares the audio piece with “ A dream at Edsin-gol ” and goes into the blending of dream and reality. In addition, the role of the divine will is briefly considered ( Fatum : "Allah protects whom he wills.").
  • The dream shows Mohallab "his whole life".
  • Miesen goes into the strange inversion of the pair of familiarity / strangeness.

literature

First edition

  • Günter Eich: dreams. Four games (Don't go to El Kuwehd! The tiger Yussuf . Sabeth . Dreams ). Library Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1953, 186 pages

Other issues

Used edition

  • Günter Eich: Don't go to El Kuwehd! or The Twice Death of the Merchant Mohallab (1950) . Pp. 303-348 in: Karl Karst (Ed.): Günter Eich. The radio plays I. in: Collected works in four volumes. Revised edition. Volume II . 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
  • Heinz Piontek : Call and Enchantment. Günter Eich's radio play. (1955) pp. 112-122 in Susanne Müller-Hanpft (ed.): About Günter Eich. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1970 (edition suhrkamp 402), 158 pages, without ISBN
  • Walter Jens : Epilogue to Günter Eich's "The Girls from Viterbo". (1958) pp. 123–128 in Susanne Müller-Hanpft (Ed.): About Günter Eich. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1970 (edition suhrkamp 402), 158 pages, without ISBN
  • 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
  • Wilfried Barner (ed.): History of German literature. Volume 12: History of German Literature from 1945 to the Present . CH Beck, Munich 1994,
    ISBN 3-406-38660-1
  • 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)
  • Conrad Miesen: Flames from the ashes. Essays on the work of Günter Eich. Wiesenburg Verlag, Schweinfurt 2003, ISBN 3-932497-83-X

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karst, p. 799 middle
  2. ↑ Miesen, p. 88, footnote 1
  3. ↑ Barner, pp. 94-95
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 328, 9. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 312
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 345, middle
  7. ↑ Jens, p. 127, 15. Zvu
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 318, 10. Zvu and p. 319, 8. Zvo
  9. ↑ Wagner, p. 216, right column (contains references to two reviews from 1950)
  10. ↑ Wagner, p. 222, left column (contains reference to a review)
  11. ↑ Karst, p. 799, 18. Zvu
  12. ↑ Schwitzke, pp. 175/176
  13. ^ Piontek, p. 118 middle
  14. ↑ Alber, pp. 93-95
  15. ↑ Edition used, p. 312, 4th Zvu and p. 348, 1st Zvu
  16. ^ Miesen, p. 72, 6th Zvu
  17. ↑ Miesen, p. 114, 3. Zvo