After Every War (ebook)

Argumento de After Every War (ebook)

They are nine women with much in common--all German speaking, all poets, all personal witnesses to the horror and devastation that was World War II. Yet, in this deeply moving collection, each provides a singularly personal glimpse into the effects of war on language, place, poetry, and womanhood.

After Every War is a book of translations of women poets living in Europe in the decades before and after World War II: Rose Ausländer, Elisabeth Langgässer, Nelly Sachs, Gertrud Kolmar, Else Lasker-Schüler, Ingeborg Bachmann, Marie Luise Kaschnitz, Dagmar Nick, and Hilde Domin. Several of the writers are Jewish and, therefore, also witnesses and participants in one of the darkest occasions of human cruelty, the Holocaust. Their poems, as well as those of the other writers, provide a unique biography of the time--but with a difference. These poets see public events through the lens of deep private losses. They chart the small occasions, the bittersweet family ties, the fruit dish on a table, the lost soul arriving at a railway station; in other words, the sheer ordinariness through which cataclysm is experienced, and by which life is cruelly shattered. They reclaim these moments and draw the reader into them.

The poems are translated and introduced, with biographical notes on the authors, by renowned Irish poet Eavan Boland. Her interest in the topic is not abstract. As an Irish woman, she has observed the heartbreaking effects of violence on her own country. Her experience has drawn her closer to these nine poets, enabling her to render into English the beautiful, ruminative quality of their work and to present their poems for what they are: documentaries of resilience--of language, of music, and of the human spirit--in the hardest of times.

"[A] moving and essential new book. These poets have a particular angle of witness that comes from powerlessness, from being vulnerable, injured, marginal, excluded. I'm struck by the personal way these poets confront history, test and interrogate language, especially their mother tongue, question the efficacy of poetry, and repeatedly defend the importance of private feeling."--Edward Hirsch, Washington Post Book World0Introduction 1
ROSE AUSLäNDER (b. 1901)
A Biographical Note 16
Mutterland / Motherland 18
Damit kein Licht uns liebe / So That No Light Would Be There to Love Us 20
Am Ende der Zeit / At the End of Time 22
Verwundert / Amazed 24
Die Fremden / Strangers 26
Meine Nachtigall / My Nightingale 28
Im Chagall-Dorf / In Chagall's Village 30
Biographische Notiz / Biographical Note 32
Mein Schlüssel / My Key 34
ELISABETH LANGGäSSER (b. 1899)
A Biographical Note 38
Frühling 1946 / Spring 1946 40
NELLY SACHS (b. 1891)
A Biographical Note 46
Wenn ich nur wüsste / If I Only Knew 48
In der blauen Ferne / In the Blue Distance 50
Bereit sind alle Länder aufzustehn / All the Lands of the Earth 52
In der Flucht / In Flight 54
In diesem Amethyst / In This Amethyst 56
Kommt einer von ferne / If Someone Comes 58
GERTRUD KOLMAR (b. 1894)
A Biographical Note 62
Das Opfer / The Victim 64
ELSE LASKERäSCHüLER (b. 1869)
A Biographical Note 72
Mein blaues Klavier / My Blue Piano 74
Ich weiß / I Know 76
Herbst / Autumn 78
Abends / In the Evening 80
Meine Mutter / My Mother 82
über glitzernden Kies / Over Glistening Gravel 84
Ein einziger mensch / A Single Man 86
INGEBORG BACHMANN (b. 1926)
A Biographical Note 90
Alle Tage / Every Day 92
Botschaft / Message 94
Die gestundete Zeit / Borrowed Time 96
Dunkles zu sagen / To Speak of Dark Things 98
Herbstmanöver / Autumn Maneuver 100
Abschied von England / Departure from England 102
Früher Mittag / Early Noon 104
Exil / Exile 108
Ihr Worte / You Words 110
MARIE LUISE KASCHNITZ (b. 1901)
A Biographical Note 116
Hiroshima / Hiroshima 118
Selinunte / Selinunte 120
Nicht mutig / Not Brave 122
HILDE DOMIN (b. 1909)
A Biographical Note 126
Köln / Cologne 128
Geburtstage / Birthdays 130
Exil / Exile 132
DAGMAR NICK (b. 1926)
A Biographical Note 136
Flugwetter / Flying Weather 138
Aufruf / Summons 140
Den Generälen ins Soldbuch / In the Book of the Generals 142
Niemandsland / No-Man's-Land 144
An Abel / To Abel 146
Emigration / Emigration 148
Notes 151
Checklists 153
Further Reading 165
Index of Titles 167