After Every War: Twentieth-Century Women Poets
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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.
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After Every War - Princeton University Press
After Every War
| FACING PAGES
NICHOLAS JENKINS
Series Editor
HORACE, THE ODES
New Translations by Contemporary Poets,
edited by J. D. McClatchy
HOTHOUSES
Poems 1889,
by Maurice Maeterlinck,
translated by Richard Howard
LANDSCAPE WITH ROWERS
Poetry from the Netherlands,
translated and introduced by J. M. Coetzee
AFTER EVERY WAR
Twentieth-Century Women Poets,
translated from the German by Eavan Boland
After Every War
Twentieth-Century Women Poets
Translations from the German
by Eavan Boland
PRINCETON
UNIVERSITY
PRESS
Princeton & Oxford
Copyright © 2004 by Eavan Boland
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1SY
All Rights Reserved
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
After every war : twentieth-century women poets / translations from the German by
Eavan Boland.
p. cm. — (Facing pages)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-691-11745-4 (alk. paper)
1. German poetry—20th century—Translations into English. 2. German poetry—Women authors—Translations into English. I. Boland, Eavan.
II. Series.
PT1156.A38 2004
831'.910809287—dc22 2003061014
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Electra LH
Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
www.pupress.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The author acknowledges the following publishers for permission to translate from the German: Rose Ausländer: © S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main 1990; Elisabeth Langgässer: er, Geist in den Sinnen behaust. © Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, Mainz 1951, Germany; Nelly Sachs: © Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1961; Gertrud Kolmar: © Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main 1983; Else Lasker-Schüler: © Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main 1996; Ingeborg Bachmann ©Piper Verlag and Zephyr Press (U.S.); Marie Luise Kaschnitz: © Cassen Verlag, München, Germany; Hilde Domin: © 1987 S. Fischer Verlag GmbH Frankfurt am Main; Dagmar Nick: © Rimbaud Verlag. For photographs of the poets, the author gratefully acknowledges: S. Fischer Verlag (Rose Ausländer); Schiller-Nationalmuseum Deutsches Literaturearchiv (Elisabeth Langgässer); Suhrkamp Verlag (Nelly Sachs); Schiller-Nationalmuseum Deutsches Literaturearchiv (Gertrud Kolmar); Suhrkamp Verlag (Else Lasker-Schüler); Renate von Mangoldt (Ingeborg Bachmann); Suhrkamp Verlag (Marie Luise Kaschnitz); S. Fischer Verlag (Hilde Domin); and Peter Peitsch/peitschophoto.com (Dagmar Nick)
TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER
and her friendship with the Burghartz family
After every war somebody must clean up
WISŁAWA SZYMBORSKA
CONTENTS
Introduction 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 LASKER-SCHÜLER (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
Author Key to Map
Ausländer: b Czernowitz, 1901, d Dusseldorf, 1988
Langgässer: b Alzey, 1899, d Karlsruhe, 1950
Sachs: b Berlin, 1891, d Stockholm, 1970
Kolmar: b Berlin, 1894, d Auschwitz, 1943
Lasker-Schüler: b Elberfeld, 1869, d Jerusalem, 1945
Bachmann: b Klagenfurt, 1926, d Rome, 1973
Kaschnitz: b Karlsruhe, 1901, d Rome, 1974
Domin: b Cologne, 1909, lives Heidelberg
Nick: b Breslau, 1926, lives Munich
PLACES OF ORIGIN
After Every War
INTRODUCTION
I
When I was a child two German girls came to help my mother in the house. It was just after the war. The small towns of Germany were in the grip of winter, hunger, and disgrace. These girls, who were sisters, hardly more than teenagers, had left that aftermath behind and come to the shelter of a country which had been neutral. There was rationing in Ireland. But there was also butter and meat. Clothing was plentiful. It was an easier place to be.
I was too young to remember their actual arrival. They came into my consciousness with my first words, my first memories. I remember the kitchen, the damp clothes, the snap of the fire, the smell of peat. I remember one of them opening a door that led into the darkness of a back lane. I can hear their voices as they folded clothes and put away plates. I can hear my own voice as I