Collected Poems (German List) - Softcover

Trakl, Georg

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0857427067 ISBN 13: 9780857427069

Publisher: Seagull Books, 2019

Synopsis

The work of poet Georg Trakl, a leading Austrian-German expressionist, has been praised by many, including his contemporaries Rainer Maria Rilke and Else Lasker-Schüler, as well as his patron Ludwig Wittgenstein, who famously wrote that while he did not truly understand Trakl’s poems, they had the tone of a “truly ingenious person,” which pleased him. This difficulty in understanding Trakl’s poems is not unique. Since the first publication of his work in 1913, there has been endless discussion about how the verses should be understood, leading to controversies over the most accurate way to translate them. In a refreshing contrast to previous translated collections of Trakl’s work, James Reidel is mindful of how the poet himself wished to be read, emphasizing the order and content of the verses to achieve a musical effect. Trakl’s verses were also marked by allegiance to both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a fact which Reidel honors with impressive research into the historicity of the poet’s language. Collected Poems gathers Trakl’s early, middle, and late work, ranging widely, from his haunting prose pieces to his darkly beautiful poems documenting the first bloody weeks of World War I on the Eastern Front.

About this title

About the Author

Georg Trakl (1887-1914) was an Austrian-German expressionist poet. James Reidel is a poet, biographer, and translator who has also translated the works by Thomas Bernhard, Georg Trakl, and Franz Werfel, among others.

Edition details

• Publisher: Seagull Books
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0857427067
• ISBN 13: 9780857427069
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 472