This is part IV (final-part) of the letter exchange between the two historic<\/p>\n\n\n\n
figures Armin Wegner and Franz Werfel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Armin Wegner wrote to Franz Werfel: “Of course, I do not know your own<\/p>\n\n\n\n
connection with Asia Minor, and I can be fooled by guessing it. Strangely,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have found that the Jewish soul, in the frame of German and Prussian<\/p>\n\n\n\n
characters, makes them better able to imagine than the majority of German<\/p>\n\n\n\n
poets can, that this Asian soul usually stands much further away and stays<\/p>\n\n\n\n
more alien to the descendant of the European crusaders. This probably has<\/p>\n\n\n\n
its deep foundation in the law of antagonism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have no right to ask you to give up your project. That probably<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wouldn\u2019t help much either. But you will certainly not be grateful to<\/p>\n\n\n\n
me if I, who from the first moment of our meeting, passionately loved<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and venerated your poetic work, ask you to consider all my thoughts,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
which I submit to you here. Precisely because I appreciate you, not<\/p>\n\n\n\n
only as a writer, but I also know the depth of your humanity, I can do<\/p>\n\n\n\n
so with a clear conscience. Perhaps it will cause you to drop an<\/p>\n\n\n\n
unfinished project that has barely begun, or to go beyond to design a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
shorter novelistic study, as it originally began?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I need not emphasize the immense gratitude and the deep reassurance<\/p>\n\n\n\n
that would fulfill me, having the opportunity to complete and market<\/p>\n\n\n\n
my work without fear of competition. Truly, I cannot give up my<\/p>\n\n\n\n
project, which has become my mission from my deepest, profound<\/p>\n\n\n\n
experience, for which I have sacrificed laborious years of toil under<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the greatest hardships and struggles, and for the sake of it, stood in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the background for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Werfel responded on Dec. 23, 1932 from Vienna: \u201cLet me first briefly<\/p>\n\n\n\n
tell you the story of the formation of my Armenian novel. Since the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
war, I have been to the Middle East twice (for several months) – the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
first time in 1925, the second time in 1929. In Damascus, I had a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
shocking experience with Armenian children, which, to some extent,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
made an epic plan virulent in me, which already existed since I first<\/p>\n\n\n\n
heard of these things; perhaps just after the war. I do not know for<\/p>\n\n\n\n
exactly how long. Oftentimes, in my method of writing, the dramatic or<\/p>\n\n\n\n
epic plans grow in the darkness for many years before they are strong<\/p>\n\n\n\n
enough to entice me to work. (I wrote the Verdi novel part time in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1911 and completed it in 1923.) In the case of my Armenian novel, I<\/p>\n\n\n\n
started studying and sketching only last year. Of course, the work<\/p>\n\n\n\n
progressed rapidly during the summer, and today I have already<\/p>\n\n\n\n
finished more than half of my book. (around 400 printed pages.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Be that as it may, I naturally like to acknowledge your primary<\/p>\n\n\n\n
concern and bow to you for being an eyewitness. However, I am almost<\/p>\n\n\n\n
reluctant to point out that there is no material legitimacy in the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
field of poetry [creative writing]. You indicate it several times in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
your letter. There are, perhaps, \u2018personal\u2019 substances that may belong<\/p>\n\n\n\n
to the peculiarity of a particular writer – the World War, with all<\/p>\n\n\n\n
its chapters, of which the Armenian tragedy is one, may by no means<\/p>\n\n\n\n
count on these substances. Fairly considered, you have in your great<\/p>\n\n\n\n
experience and your fateful connectedness, a tremendous advantage over<\/p>\n\n\n\n
me, who cannot create his work based on experience, direct exposure,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
grasp of senses, but only from imagination, inventiveness and thus<\/p>\n\n\n\n
some historical documents. With such a competition, therefore, the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
worry should be far more on my side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I believe, dear Wegner, that we can both be very calm, because our<\/p>\n\n\n\n
works will certainly be completely different. Mine uses documented<\/p>\n\n\n\n
facts of only one single episode that covers a few pages in the Alster<\/p>\n\n\n\n
collection of Lepsius. The episode serves me as the framework for a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
universal human happening, for a symbolic development, for figures<\/p>\n\n\n\n
purely invented, it is not an end in itself but only an occasion. Nor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
will there be much talk of atrocities and massacres in my book. I will<\/p>\n\n\n\n
set aside all the documentary stuff. The human destiny of the invented<\/p>\n\n\n\n
characters alone will be important. The scene I am referring to, the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
contents of which have become known to you through the newspapers, has<\/p>\n\n\n\n
very little to do with the actual novel. The scene I am referring to,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the contents of which have become known to you through the newspapers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
has very little to do with the actual novel. A multi-volume work like<\/p>\n\n\n\n
yours will project a gigantic and magnificent painting of the Armenian<\/p>\n\n\n\n
destiny, with ten thousand details. While mine, I hope, will be a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
story limited to a certain region and a small fragment of people. The<\/p>\n\n\n\n
emphasis will be more on the mythical-human side rather than the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Armenian cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lastly, I am surprised about the muffled suspicion that sounds from<\/p>\n\n\n\n
certain lines of your letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You are suggesting that I had heard of your correspondence with the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prussian Academy and Paul Zsolnay Publishing House, and might have<\/p>\n\n\n\n
been inspired to write my Armenian novel. In fact, I entered the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
meeting room of the Poets Academy for the first time in my life<\/p>\n\n\n\n
fourteen days ago, and, as far as publishing correspondence is<\/p>\n\n\n\n
concerned, my own stuff is already annoying enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But is it possible that you seriously believe that the facts of your<\/p>\n\n\n\n
work could stimulate my choice of substance and put you off your work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You are a poet and, therefore, you know that it is not us who choose<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the substance, but the substance chooses us. Nothing is more sensible<\/p>\n\n\n\n
to me than that everything I write is essential, i.e., dictated from<\/p>\n\n\n\n
within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until yesterday, from your books I had only the beautiful volume ‘The<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Face of the Cities,’ which I admire and love very much. Unfortunately,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I haven\u2019t read any of your prose. Since I work a lot, I read almost no<\/p>\n\n\n\n
novels or short stories. I just got the mail with your open letter to<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilson. The real glow of your words deeply moved me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please do not overestimate the rivalry of our works. They go different ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, and globally, you are a great authority on the Armenian cause,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
through knowledge, experience, and connectedness. This was shown to me<\/p>\n\n\n\n
in just the few pages I went through yesterday. The glow of these<\/p>\n\n\n\n
pages, however, also suggests that your publisher cannot be unhappy,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
even when another, be it a layman or artist, tries to serve the same<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately, Franz Werfel was not dissuaded by Wegner to give up his<\/p>\n\n\n\n
plans to write \u201cThe Forty Days of Musa Dagh.\u201d On the other hand,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wegner published only the first volume of his planned four-volume<\/p>\n\n\n\n
book, depriving the world of his precious eyewitness accounts of the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Armenian Genocide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is part IV (final-part) of the letter exchange between the two historic figures Armin Wegner and Franz Werfel. Armin Wegner wrote to Franz Werfel: “Of course, I do not know your own connection with Asia Minor, and I can be fooled by guessing it. Strangely, I have found that the Jewish soul, in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4101,"featured_media":774359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-668190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harut-sassounian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}