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Product Description
Product Description
This collection of Trakl's essential poetry contains the two books published in his lifetime, "Gedichte" ('Poems', 1913) and "Sebastian im Traum" ('Sebastian in a Dream', 1914), together with the later poems published in the magazine "Der Brenner" which might have formed the nucleus of a third collection. His starkly beautiful, musical poems are rightly regarded as being among the early twentieth century's most original poetry. From a life marred by drug addiction and breakdowns, he created work of great depth and power, brought hauntingly to life in Margitt Lehbert's close and sympathetic versions.
About the Author
Georg Trakl (1887-1914) was born in Salzburg, Austria, where he lived apart from spells in Vienna. After qualifying as a pharmacist he spent his year of military service in the Innsbruck garrison hospital pharmacy. In the wake of the Battle of Grodek, he died of a drug overdose in a military hospital in Krakow.Margitt Lehbert was born in Geneva, Switzerland, to German parents in 1957. She grew up in the United States and Germany, studied in Konstanz and Iowa City, and translates into German as well as English. In 2006 she founded Edition Rugerup, which publishes mostly poetry in translation. She lives in south Sweden.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There will never be another Georg Trakl. Although part of an Impressionist 'group', Trakl's work will always be instantly recognisable for its trance-like cadence and frightening solipsism. The occasional grace of Trakl's poetry, seen in poems like Helian ('In the lonely hours of the mind/ It is lovely to walk in the sun/ Along the yellow walls of summer') provide hard-earned moments of solace and contentment amidst the terror of poems like 'Grodek', giving a sense of balance to his vision.
In this volume, Margitt Lehbert has presented us with Trakl's two collections in their entirety, plus the poems that would've formed part of his planned third volume. By including the poems in a sequential state, it's easy to see the progression of Trakl's style between the volumes, and the scaling down of formal structures that dominated 'Poems' to the pure free verse of 'Sebastian in a Dream'.
Generally speaking, the translation is good and preserves the melancholic tone that his trademark fragmented sentences structures evoke. There is also a succinct biographical introduction of Trakl that prepares new readers with a backstory to the harrowing and nightmarish poetry. This sketches not only the inbuilt turmoil of his depression but also the way that war and misfortune compounded his problems.
One thing the book lacks is the original german on the pane opposite the translated english, which is slightly disappointing. That said, the presentation of the poetry is effective and each poem, regardless of length, is allotted a full page to its own: there's no compression of several short poems onto one page.
Neglected for most of the twentieth century, Lehbert's translation should hopefully continue the growing appreciation for Trakl's verse across Europe. In terms of providing psychologically-charged imagery, there are few writers who can match Trakl. Most free-verse poets ought to find something to like here.
In this volume, Margitt Lehbert has presented us with Trakl's two collections in their entirety, plus the poems that would've formed part of his planned third volume. By including the poems in a sequential state, it's easy to see the progression of Trakl's style between the volumes, and the scaling down of formal structures that dominated 'Poems' to the pure free verse of 'Sebastian in a Dream'.
Generally speaking, the translation is good and preserves the melancholic tone that his trademark fragmented sentences structures evoke. There is also a succinct biographical introduction of Trakl that prepares new readers with a backstory to the harrowing and nightmarish poetry. This sketches not only the inbuilt turmoil of his depression but also the way that war and misfortune compounded his problems.
One thing the book lacks is the original german on the pane opposite the translated english, which is slightly disappointing. That said, the presentation of the poetry is effective and each poem, regardless of length, is allotted a full page to its own: there's no compression of several short poems onto one page.
Neglected for most of the twentieth century, Lehbert's translation should hopefully continue the growing appreciation for Trakl's verse across Europe. In terms of providing psychologically-charged imagery, there are few writers who can match Trakl. Most free-verse poets ought to find something to like here.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is very good to have a chance to encounter Trakl in such a handsomely produced and gracefully translated edition. There is nothing to compare with these strange haunting poems in English writing of the period; perhaps Housman manages a similar fusion of lyrical beauty and intense unhappiness, but Trakl's voice comes as if from the brink of a deeper abyss. Recommended especially to anyone (like this reviewer) who does not read German and who has struggled to extract poetic sense from translations of the best-known German poet of the era, namely Rilke.
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