It’s still not easy, but more fun. Turning a novel into an audiobook was really challening, especially for a total novice like me. I still feel like a novice, though the challenge has changed. It’s poems now. And instead of going the long distance, I have to extend extra special care to details now. It doesn’t feel like refining recordings; rather I envision myself as a carpenter occupied with hardwood intarsia. I never manage to capture a poem in one go. Simply not possible for me. So I have to bring the pieces of the puzzle together, polishing intarsia till they acquiesce to be united in a single piece of work. Timing is of such essence, I feel I’m shaving off microseconds from pauses. I’m tuning the volume of my breaths to a T, I’m EQing and adjusting the pieces of the puzzle to the best of my knowledge and my abilities. I’m fighting with sibilance & noise, and probably some acoustic phenomena I don’t even know the name of.

Of course I’m not satisfied. What sounds just right in the evening displays strange inconsistencies in the morning, and what stands the test of a week might sound odd a month later. Probably I’m making laughable beginner’s mistakes pros would shake their head at. Slowly, I’m learning.

Der Brief des Nachtportiers (mp3, German)

The poem’s text in English