Angina Days (ebook)

Argumento de Angina Days (ebook)

"Scenes of isolated survival amid bewildering change appear throughout Angina Days, an excellent comprehensive bilingual selection of Eich's poems edited and translated by Michael Hofmann."--John Palattella, Nation

"Angina Days, a crisp new selection translated by Michael Hofmann and published in Princeton's 'Facing Pages' series, is an opportunity for Eich to secure at last the English-speaking readership he has long deserved. In the German-speaking world, Eich is widely accepted as a twentieth-century classic, the supreme poet of unease. His poem 'Inventur' ('Inventory') is one of the best known poems in the language. Born in 1907 in Lebus on the Oder, a small village near Berlin, Eich was a member, along with Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass, of the Gruppe 47, a literary association 'called into being to cleanse and adjust and simplify' the German language after its abuse by the Third Reich, as Hofmann explains in his excellent introduction. . . . Hofmann's translations in Angina Days have the confidence, clearness and clout to offer Eich salvation from obscurity. . . . Hofmann's new translations are neither cumbersome nor dull. They work as poems independently from the German. They are animated, idiomatic, attractively spry, and above all they allow Eich's voice to reach us loud and clear--peevish, skeptical, true to itself, irresistible."--Siriol Troup, Times Literary Supplement

"Of the three postwar writers whose work seems most clearly to answer to Adorno's sense that no poetry can be written after the Holocaust, it is Eich (Beckett and Celan are the others) whose refusal of rhetoric is most thorough, with the result that the speaker--the authorial presence--whoever it is who would have persuaded, blamed, or badgered us, seems to have vanished into thin air, leaving nothing to come between ourselves and the pure experience offered by the poems."--Belle Randall, poetry editor, Common Knowledge

"This is an extremely important book. Günter Eich is a highly significant German poet and Michael Hofmann is the master translator of contemporary German literature--both poetry and prose--into English. These pieces of Eich's are powerful, bitter, and compressed poems in English, and they will enlarge the landscape of postwar German poetry for Anglophone readers. Eich and Hofmann meet in blessed conjunction."--Rosanna Warren, author of Departure: Poems

"Since I mention poetry, I should say that Michael Hofmann's translations of the poems of the German poet Guenter Eich, Angina Days, is one of the best books to come out in 2010. Eich's acerbic, chafing, sensuous verses, dealing with life's most basic anxieties and activities, refute, through a combination of stubbornness and technique, Adorno's stricture about the impossibility of poetry after Auschwitz."--Amit Chaudhuri, Outlook India

"Contemporary literature would be a great deal duller, sparser and more insular without Michael Hofmann. . . . Eich (1907-72) is among the most significant voices in post-war German poetry. For anyone new to [Eich], Hofmann's selection, drawn mainly from his later work, is an excellent introduction."--Dennis O'Driscoll, PN Review

"Fortunately, renowned poet and translator Michael Hofmann has brought a selection of Eich's late poetry into sharp, searing English in Angina Days, a book that will remain the definitive translated edition of Eich's late work. . . . Eich's scaled-back language--in Hofmann''s deft translation--facilitates a devastatingly unsentimental tone appropriate for this clear-eyed consideration of what it means to be a prisoner, and what a prisoner's simple possessions mean to him. . . . Michael Hofmann's thrilling new translations of this neglected master will stick like barbs in the minds of English-language readers for years to come."--Stephan Delbos, Prague Post

"At last a major portion of the poetry of Günter Eich (1907-1972) has been made accessible to an English-speaking readership in a new translation."--Axel Vieregg, Berlin Review of Books

Winner of the 2012 Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation, American Academy of Arts and Letters
Runner-Up for the 2011 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, PEN American Center
Runner-Up for the The 2011 Schlegel-Tieck Prize (for German Translation), The Society of Authors0Acknowledgments, xi
Introduction, xiii

from Abgelegene Gehöfte / Remote Smallholdings (1948)
Abgelegene Gehofte / Remote Smallholdings, 2
Pfannkuchenrezept / Recipe for Pancakes, 4
Camp 16 / Camp 16, 6
Inventur / Inventory, 8
Erster Januar / First of January, 12

from Botschaft en des Regens / Messages from the Rain (1955)
Ende eines Sommers / End of Summer, 16
Gegenwart / Th e Present, 18
D-Zug Munchen-Frankfurt / Munich-Frankfurt Express, 22
Kleine Reparatur / Minor Repair, 24
Weg zum Bahnhof / Way to the Station, 26
Lemberg / Lvov, 28
Andenken / Memorial, 30
Wo ich wohne / Where I Live, 32
Reise / Journey, 34
Mittags um zwei / Two in the Aft ernoon, 36
Betrachtet die Fingerspitzen / Examine Your Fingertips, 38
Briefstelle / From a Letter, 40
Einsicht / Understanding, 42
Ende August / End of August, 44

from Zu den Akten / Ad Acta (1964)
Alte Postkarten / Old Postcards, 48
Neue Postkarten / New Postcards, 52
Bericht aus einem Kurort / Report from a Spa, 56
Nachhut / Rearguard, 58
Rest / Remnant, 60
Alte Hollander / Old Dutch Masters, 62
Bruder Grimm / Brothers Grimm, 64
Zu spat fur Bescheidenheit / Too Late for Modesty, 66
Bestellung / Order, 68
Tragtasche / Holdall, 70
Ohne Unterschrift / Unsigned, 72
Jaques Devant, fur Viele / Jaques Devant, for the Many, 74
Aufgelassenes Zollamt / Old Customshouse, 76
Aussicht vom Spezial-Keller / Perspective from the Spezial-Keller, 78
Zunahme / Increase, 80
Auskunft e aus dem Nachlass / Tips from the Posthumous Papers, 82
Ungultige Landkarte / Fraudulent Map, 84
Topographie einer schoneren Welt / Topography of a Better World, 86
Fussnote zu Rom / Roman Footnote, 88

from Anlässe und Steingärten / Occasions and Rock Gardens (1966)
Timetable / Timetable, 92
Berlin 1918 / Berlin, 1918, 94
Kinder-und Hausmarchen / Fairy Tales, 96
Rauchbier / Rauchbier, 98
Alte Postkarten / Old Postcards, 100
Neue Postkarten / New Postcards, 106
Weitgereist / Traveling Far, 110
Fortschritt / Progress, 112
Halb / Half, 114
Satzzeichen / Punctuation Marks, 116
Zwei / Two, 118
Bett huten / Confi ned to Bed, 120
Schluss eines Kriminalromans / Th e End of the Th riller, 122
Armer Sonntag / Poor Sunday, 124
Verspatung / Delayed, 126
Lange Gedichte / Long Poems, 128
Nach Seumes Papieren / From Seume's Papers (1972)
Nordlicher Seufzer / Northern Sigh, 134
Stadtrand / Edge of Town, 136
Philologisch / Philological, 138
Nach dem Ende der Biographie / Aft er Setting Down
the Biography, 140
Optik / Optics, 142
Namen / Names, 144
Steuererklarung / Tax Declaration, 146
Augsburg / Augsburg, 148
Nach Seumes Papieren / From Seume's Papers, 150
Spater / Later, 152

from Uncollected Poems and Poems from Radio Plays
Der Regen in Eltville / The Rain in Eltville, 156
Plane / Plans, 158
Vorwinter / Early Winter, 160
Alter Dezember / Old December, 162
Nomaden / Nomads, 164
Freund und Horazleser / Friend and Reader of Horace, 166
aus: Träume / from: Dreams, 168
Handel / Handel, 180
Napoleon denkt an Josephine / Napoleon Remembers Josephine, 182
Lange Gedichte / Long Poems, 184
Die vorige Woche / Last Week, 186
Und / And, 188
Landgasthof / Rustic Hotel, 190
Klinikfarben / Hospital Colors, 192
Vom Gluck / Of Happiness, 194