Selbstredend selbzweit selbdritt: Serpentine Selves in the Poetry of Roza Domascyna

Canadian Slavonic Papers, Sep-Dec 2003 by Dueck, Cheryl

The hybrid agency embraced by Bakhtin, and later by Bhabha, does not necessarily involve assimilation, or even collaboration. In this poem, the encounter is intensely intimate, and yet, the two subjects are not obliged to merge or unite. Rather, they create interest in the space between self and self-other.

Many of Domascyna's German-based texts phonetically reproduce Serbian words, which sometimes cleverly overlap meanings in the two languages. The combinations become increasingly rich in the third section of Selfspeaking selfsecond selfthird, for example in the first line of the poem, "Fur O.P." reads "ja du ha du", a line seemingly clear to the German reader ("yes, you, ha, you"), but which is also imbued with a parallel meaning in Serbian: "I am going and going." Both meanings fit the context of the poem, which narrates the playful Carmen-like seduction of a man by a woman. "For O.P." is among the most linguistically dense poems in the volume, combining mostly German and upper Serbian, but also lower Serbian, German regionalisms and a dash of French ("allez!"). Domascyna contends that it works for most readers as 'Sprachmusik', or 'language music.'16 The rhythm is quickly established by such lines as "schakata schaka schekiger schaker," and keywords are easily recognized: "afrodyter," "animaliski," "lust," "Juan Joan Johann Jan," "in den armen der Carmen erbarmen," "amen." By revealing the musical sounds of a combination of Sorbian and German in this poetic seduction, the author gives voice to the daily reality of cultural hybridization.

Since Sorbians are all both Sorbian and German, in that they speak both languages and hold German citizenship, a combination of languages is common in their speech. Not surprisingly, Domascyna has faced criticism from cultural purists for putting it to paper. "For O.P." was the target of a Sorbian critic's invective, which expressed the view that there are few enough people who still have mastery of the Sorbian language, and that Domascyna's poetry did harm to the cause of preserving the language. Similarly, German reception of her work has likely been hampered by the presence of Sorbian elements in the text. Yet, it is precisely the resistance to cultural labels which makes her work compelling. In her field of words, Domascyna creates a triangular space. "For O.P." is part of a triptych of poems called 'Triangel Regional' at the end of selfspeaking, in which the three corners are formed by Sorbian, German, and the "third language." It is also a reference to what is called the three-country corner of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. It is within these dimensions that the author pursues the 'self and selfother' and it is here that we can discover the textual richness of "the contaminated yet connective tissue between cultures" from one of Europe's blind spots.

1 Roza Domascyna, Selbstredend selbzweit selbdritt (Berlin: Gerhard Wolf Janus Press, 1998). All translations are my own. Discussion of Domascyna's work will be limited here to German-language publications.