Barnet, Miguel: Brief an Henze, Hans Werner in Marino. undatiert
author: Barnet, Miguel
language: en
availability: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Abstract original painting in blue, red and white tempera colours, signed on the left with the initials of the as yet unidentified author R.M.. In the image a kind of emblem in a square box and the letters F and E can be made out.

Between 30 April 1969 and 27 June 1969[^1]
Muy[^2] dear friend:

[^1: The date is derived from the content of the letter. Barnet mentions Hans Magnus Enzensberger's departure from Cuba, which took place at the end of April 1969. Therefore, it can be assumed that Barnet did not write this letter before the end of April. Furthermore, it is presumed that this letter was not written after 27 June 1969, when Henze sent a telegram to Barnet.]

[^2: The word Muy is often used at the beginning of letters in this correspondence and therefore does not seem to be a mistake. Perhaps Barnet is playing on a combination of the Spanish word Muy (very) and the English word my, meaning my very dear friend.]

I have been missing you so much, you can’t imagine. [Henze's first trip in Cuba lasted from 21 March to 16 April 1969, as stated in his Autobiography, p. 260.] Life here is so intense in work and political affairs, that thinking about yo u¡is like paradise. I hope[^3] you received my cable welcoming you home. [Barnet refers to Henze's return to Marino from his trip to Cuba. Barnet’s telegram, which was intended to welcome Henze to Marino, has yet to be identified.] I also hope that Carlo, Gianny, Pietro, Italo, and Iyoto Makiko [It is unclear who the people mentioned are. They were probably friends who met Henze on his return to Italy.] were very happy to see you again.

[^3: From the word hope the colour of the ribbon has obviously been changed, resulting in a mixture of black - or rather grey - and red-coloured ribbon. The ribbon must have been so loosely clamped that it changed between the two colours indiscriminately, so that some letters are difficult to read, especially where the letters are almost only red (especially lines 12-15). Individual letters were retouched by hand.]

Music here is boring now. Although we have had some concerts, especially guitar ones which were not so bad. Leo is sick, very sick. He is in the hospital with a broken bone and his trouble of the skin. If you find time write him a letter.[^4]

[^4: Letters from the correspondence between Henze and Leo Brouwer are kept at the Paul Sacher Foundation. Perhaps as a result of this suggestion, Henze sent Brouwer a telegram from Marino for the first time on 27 June 1969.]

Cesar sends you his best hugs and his most pr o fuond stares. I write like mad an essay about new african poetry[^5] , and wait for my book on the music hall queen to come out. [Barnet is referring to his book La canción de Rachel , published in 1969.] Magnus left leaving a very beautiful remembrance, of friendship and love and brightness.[^6] I am sad because you are not here and you know it is not enough when you like someone so much to be together for a weeks and then nothing. [As already mentioned, Henze was in Cuba from 21 March to 16 April 1969.]

[^5: It cannot be ascertained which essay Barnet is referring to in this letter. However, his ethnographic research on African culture already led to the publication of an essay a few years earlier in 1966 entitled La segunda africanía .]

[^6: Hans Magnus Enzensberger lived in Cuba from October 1968 to the end of April 1969. In his book Tumult, p. 191, he mentions that he was back in Berlin on 1 May 1969 and had already travelled to Prague before that. This information is relevant for dating this letter.]

Love,
Miguel

[Barnet's graphic signature.]