4. Berliner Leseabend der toten Sprachen

The 4th Berlin Leseabend der toten Sprachen (LetoS) took place on February 14, 2025—Valentine’s Day—at Humboldt University. The date was fitting: this semester’s event brought together 15 ancient-language performances around the many forms of love—romantic, divine, tragic, humorous, and metaphysical. The large auditorium once again served as the stage for a wide-ranging, two-hour program that moved easily between languages, genres, and registers.

For one night, these ancient tongues were wedded to contemporary ears: Vedic Sanskrit, Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew, Ancient Greek, Gothic, Coptic, Syriac, Anglo-Saxon, Tocharian, Classical Arabic, Old Norse, Old Prussian, and Old Lithuanian.

You can listen to my readings of Classical Arabic poems by Manṣūr Al-Ḥallāǧ here:

For more impressions (in German) and photos, visit the website of the Institute for Comparative Linguistics at HU Berlin.