Writer Antonio Skármeta dies on the age of 83 | EUROtoday
Dieser Schriftsteller aus Chile, einer der freundlichsten, die man sich vorstellen kann, hatte verschiedene Leben, und alle von ihnen hat er voll gelebt: erst als junger Student mit literarischen Ambitionen in Santiago de Chile, wo Antonio Skármeta Philosophie studierte und sicherlich viele ernsthafte Gedanken im Kopf hatte. Dann als Exilant von 1973 an, die Jahre, in denen er endgültig zum Schriftsteller wurde. Später als Diplomat. Und noch später als Fernsehmoderator und öffentliche Figur, verehrt, geliebt, mit seinem Weltruhm als Leichtgepäck auf dem Rücken.
Der Bruch 1973 aber war eine ernste Sache, wie er es für alle Chilenen war, eine Markierung der Biographie für immer. Als Skármeta nach dem Militärputsch und dem Beginn des Pinochet-Regimes Chile verlassen musste, zog es ihn erst nach Argentinien und kurz darauf nach Deutschland, in den Westen Berlins, wo er als Theater- und Drehbuchautor arbeitete. Auch in deutschen Verlagen veröffentlichte er fortan seine Bücher: den schmalen Roman „Ich träumte, der Schnee brennt“ (1975, deutsch 1978) etwa sowie Kinder- und Jugendbücher, die er bei Lesungen mit besonderem Charme vortrug.
And then he wrote the e book each writer hopes for of their profession: a bestseller that changed into a cultural icon. This novel from 1985 is barely recognized in Germany below the unique title “With Burning Patience”. The materials, which Skármeta initially conceived as a screenplay after which filmed himself, turned significantly better recognized when the British director Michael Radford filmed it once more in 1994 on the island of Procida within the Gulf of Naples. Now he was known as “Il postino” or “The Postman” and had a worldwide profession.
But the movie with Philippe Noiret and the irresistible Massimo Troisi in his final position (he died on the age of 41, in the future after filming ended) was only a car for the fabric: it helped the theme that Skármeta had invented to return to fruition common fame. What was it made from? Nothing greater than the small, insignificant story of a postman who will get recommendation on love issues from the world-famous poet Pablo Neruda, particularly: the way to win a lady’s coronary heart by way of the writing of verse and the skilful use of language. You even be taught what a metaphor can do.
Of course, massive politics come into play at occasions, but it surely stays a romantic story, and who is aware of whether or not the astonishing scene through which the gorgeous Maria (Beatrice Russo) lets a uncooked egg roll into her cleavage is not one of many sweetest, funniest, most harmless belongs to erotic scenes within the cinema. In the tip, out of 5 Oscar nominations, just one Academy Award was received for music. Today, the novel “With Burning Patience” or “The Postman of Neruda,” which began all of it, has been translated into greater than thirty languages, tailored many occasions for the stage and even changed into an opera.
Ambassador of hearts
In 1989, Skármeta returned to Chile, wrote extra books and hosted a profitable e book present on Chilean tv that lasted for ten years. In 2000 he got here again to Berlin as ambassador for the Lagos authorities and stayed there for 3 years – one other Latin American mental who allowed himself to be taken into diplomatic service, as Pablo Neruda and Octavio Paz had accomplished earlier than him.
To the tip, Skármeta possessed the reward of comedy, which is mixed with friendliness that’s tough to surpass. His books have been as pleasant as the person himself, and anybody who had accused him of the artist Skármeta’s behavior of packing an excessive amount of romance into his pages might need been instructed that there was by no means sufficient of it on the earth and somebody needed to cope with it take care.
In 2002 he acquired the Goethe Medal for his companies to the German language, in 2003 the Bremen Hanseatic Prize for International Understanding, and in 2014 the National Prize for Literature in his residence nation. Regarding the idea of the avant-garde, the writer stated that he himself doesn’t must cleared the path; it could be higher if his books make sure that others cleared the path. Now Antonio Skármeta, the inventor of literature’s most romantic postman, has died in Santiago de Chile on the age of 83.
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/schriftsteller-antonio-skarmeta-mit-83-jahren-gestorben-110048970.html