Love Poems Erich Fried - Translated by Stuart Hood
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Love Poems
Erich Fried
Translated by Stuart Hood
ONEWORLD
CLASSICSoneworld classics ltd London House 243-253 Lower Mortlake Road Richmond Surrey TW9 2LL United Kingdom www.oneworldclassics.com Love Poems first published in Great Britain by John Calder (Publishers) Ltd in 1991 This new, revised edition first published by Oneworld Classics Ltd in 2011 A selection from two volumes entitled Liebesgedichte and Es ist was es ist originally published in German by Verlag Klaus Wagenbach © Erich Fried Estate, 1991, 1999, 2011 © Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, 1979 and 1983 Translation © Stuart Hood, 1991, 2011 Cover image © Corbis Images Printed in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe isbn: 978-1-84749-196-1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other- wise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be resold, lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the express prior consent of the publisher.
Contents
I n tro du c tion xi
Pa rt i 3
Was es ist 4
What It Is 5
Fragen und Antworten 6
Questions and Answers 7
Eine Kleinigkeit 10
A Trifle 11
Schmutzkonkurrenz am Morgen 12
Morning Mudslinging 13
Nach dem Erwachen 14
On Waking Up 15
Nur nicht 16
Better Not 17
Aber 18
But 19
Zum Beispiel 20
For Example 21
In einem anderen Land 22
In Another Land 23
Erwartung 26
Expectation 27
Einer ohne Schwefelhölzer 28
A Man without Matches 29
Nachtgedicht 30
Night Poem 31
Ein Fußfall 32
A Case of Homage to a Foot 33
Nachtlied 34
Night Song 35
Was? 36
What? 37
Kein Stillleben 38
Not a Still Life 39Love Poems Erotik 40 Erotic 41 Scham 42 Shame 43 Das richtige Wort 44 The Right Word 45 Verantwortungslos 46 Irresponsible 47 Dich 48 You 49 Zwischenfall 52 Something Odd 53 Ungeplant 54 Unplanned 55 Altersunterschied 56 Difference in Age 57 Was war das? 58 What Was That? 59 Erleichterung 60 Relief 61 Erschwerung 62 Complication 63 Trennung 64 Separation 65 Eine Art Liebesgedicht 66 A Sort of Love Poem 67 Erwägung 68 Reflection 69 Nähe 70 Nearness 71 Wintergarten 72 Winter Garden 73 Nachhall 74 Echo 75 Was weh tut 76 What Hurts 77 Antwort auf einen Brief 78 Answer to a Letter 79 Achtundzwanzig Fragen 80 Twenty-Eight Questions 81 An Dich denken 82 Thinking of You 83 Freiraum 84
contents Breathing Space 85 Luftpostbrief 86 Airmail Letter 87 Kein Brief nach Spanien 88 Not a Letter to Spain 89 In der Zeit bis zum 4. Juli 1978 90 Leading up to the 4th of July 1978 91 Rückfahrt nach Bremen 92 On the Way Back to Bremen 93 Der Weg zu Dir 94 The Road to You 95 Auf der Fahrt fort von dir 96 On the Journey away from You 97 Triptychon 98 Triptych 99 Vielleicht 102 Perhaps 103 In der Ferne 104 In the Distance 105 Ich träume 106 I Dream 107 Meine Wahl 108 My Choice 109 Notwendige Fragen 110 Necessary Questions 111 Herbst 112 Autumn 113 Eifriger Trost 114 Eager Comfort 115 Dich 116 You 117 Ungewiss 118 Uncertain 119 Die Vorwürfe 120 Reproaches 121 Zuflucht 122 Refuge 123 Vorübungen für ein Wunder 124 Warming up for a Miracle 125 Strauch mit herzförmigen Blättern 126 Bush with Heart-Shaped Leaves 127 In Gedanken 128 In Thought 129
Love Poems Ich 130 I 131 Tränencouvade 132 Couvade for Tears 133 Diese Leere 134 This Void 135 Die guten Gärtner 138 The Good Gardeners 139 Tagtraum 140 Daydream 141 Ohne dich 142 Without You 143 Dann 144 Then 145 Warum 146 Why 147 Später Gedanke 148 Late Thought 149 Traum 150 Dream 151 Das Schwere 152 Difficult 153 Wartenacht 154 Night of Waiting 155 Das Herz in Wirklichkeit 156 The Heart in Reality 157 Pa rt II 159 Gegengewicht 160 Counterpoise 161 In dieser Zeit 162 In This Time 163 Die Liebe und wir 164 Love and Us 165 Was ist Leben? 166 What Is Life? 167 Ein linkes Liebesgedicht? 168 A Left-Wing Love Poem? 169 Durcheinander 170 Confusion 171 Liebe bekennen 172
contents To Make Love Known 173 Reden 174 Speeches 175 Grenze der Verzweiflung 176 Edge of Despair 177 Hölderlin an Susette Gontard 178 Hölderlin to Susette Gontard 179 Du 182 You 183 Karl Marx 1983 184 Karl Marx 1983 185 Parteinahme 186 Taking Sides 187 Kinder und Linke 190 Children and the Left 191 Regelbestätigungen 192 Proving the Rule 193 Lebensaufgabe 194 A Life’s Task 195 Die Feinde 196 The Enemies 197 Warnung vor Zugeständnissen 198 Warning about Concessions 199 Gespräch mit einem Überlebenden 200 Conversation with a Survivor 201 Dankesschuld 202 Debt of Gratitude 203 Die Lezten werden die Ersten sein 204 The Last Shall Be First 205 Sühne 206 Atonement 207 Dialog in hundert Jahren mit Fußnote 208 Dialogue a Century from Now with Footnote 209 Das Ärgernis 210 The Offence 211 Deutsche Worte vom Meer 212 German Words about the Sea 213 Realitätsprinzip 214 Reality Principle 215 Glücksspiel 216 Game of Chance 217
Love Poems Pa rt III 219 Schwache Stunde 220 Time of Weakness 221 Lob der Verzweiflung 222 Praise of Despair 223 Versuch sich anzupassen 224 Attempt to Conform 225 Sterbensworte Don Quixotes 226 Don Quixote’s Last Words 227 Als kein Ausweg zu sehen war 228 When No Solution Was in Sight 229 Wo immer gelöscht wird 230 Wherever Something Is Quenched 231 Die Stille 234 Silence 235 Bereitsein war alles 236 Readiness Was All 237 Verhalten 238 Stance 239 Ausgleichende Gerechtigkeit 240 Even-Handed Justice 241 Diagnose 242 Diagnosis 243 Die Bulldozer 244 The Bulldozers 245 Eine Stunde 246 An Hour 247 Entenende 250 The End of the Ducks 251 Ça ira? 252 Ça ira? 253 Zukunft? 254 Future? 255 Es gab Menschen 256 There Were People 257 Was der Wald sah 260 What the Wood Saw 261 Fabeln 264 Fables 265 Homeros Eros 266 Homeros Eros 267
contents Bedingung 268 Conditional 269 Der einzige Ausweg 270 The Only Way Out 271 Heilig-Nüchtern 272 Soberly-Holy 273 Ungewiß 274 Uncertain 275 Macht der Dichtung 276 The Power of Poetry 277 Gedichte lesen 278 Reading Poems 279 Die Einschränkung 280 The Reservation 281 Nacht in London 282 Night in London 283 Es dämmert 284 It Grows Dark 285 Eigene Beobachtung 286 Personal Observations 287 Der Vorwurf 288 The Reproach 289 Ei ei 290 Aye Aye 291 Abschied 294 Farewell 295 Altersschwäche? 296 Weakness of Old Age? 297 Zuspruch 298 Encouragement 299 Aber vielleicht 300 But Maybe 301 Alter 302 Age 303 Zu guter Letzt 304 At the Very End 305 Vielleicht 306 Perhaps 307 Grabschrift 308 Epitaph 309 In d ex o f First Line s 310
Introduction
On repatriation leave in the autumn of 1944 I came across a col-
lection of German poems by writers in exile. Among largely unfa-
miliar names there was that of Erich Fried who had contributed
two poems. One was called ‘Gottes Mühlen mahlen am Lethe’
(‘God’s Mills Grind on Lethe’). In nightmarish and prophetic
terms, soon to be terribly confirmed in photographs of the great
charnel pits of Belsen and the other camps, it described the trail of
death the war and tyranny were spreading over Europe. Struck by
the power of Fried’s images, I translated the poem which began:
A corpse-fed river full in spate
Flows in my dreams throughout the night.
It was published – so to speak – by being put up on the walls of
the Left Book Club rooms in Edinburgh.
Erich Fried and I were not to meet until 1946. It was in London,
in Bush House, where we were both employed in the BBC’s
German Service. In the depressing subterranean canteen where
the voices booming over the Tannoy were reputed to have inspired
Orwell’s Big Brother I got to know this young man with his
uneasy gait, his slightly pudgy sensitive hands, his fine head with
its mass of dark hair, his extraordinary voice; learnt to know his
quixotic, indomitable spirit, his courage, mischievous humour
and deep seriousness. We discussed poetry, in which we shared
certain tastes, and politics, in which we shared the experience of
being disillusioned Communists who were still determined not
to abandon the humanist and utopian aims of socialism. It was a
friendship that was to last for forty years until his death.
xiLove Poems
To be close to Erich – which was not always easy for those near-
est to him – was to see functioning a human being of apparently
inexhaustible energies and inventiveness. His creative powers
rested on his ability to reach down into the deepest recesses of his
psyche, to confront what he discovered there and to endure the
most profound and painful emotions. But he also had a capacity
to recognize the absurd sides of our human natures, the quirks of
behaviour in himself and others. One of his own eccentricities was
his love of rummaging in skips to rescue what was still usable and
for collecting junk on one pretext or another: an activity which
he correctly defended as a protest against consumerism and as
what now would be called a “green” attitude to our sum of natural
resources. It also had roots in the poverty he had experienced as
a young exile who stole lead piping to raise money to get other
refugees to safety. Many of his objets trouvés decorated his study
where there was gathered – along with a barely controlled confu-
sion of books, files, manuscripts – an extraordinary collection
of things beautiful, strange and curious: they included (as one
of his poems testifies) his mother’s ashes. His typewriter, which
functioned by means of an ingenious arrangement of weights
and counterbalances, bore witness to his technical inventiveness,
which he applied in the painstaking repair of domestic appliances
and had earlier used in Vienna to invent electrical patents. The
room, in short, was a reflection of the diversity of his talents, of
the quirkiness and originality of his mind.
In the post-war years, although he decided against living in
either Germany or his native Austria, his reputation grew there
as a poet, writer and translator. His oeuvre included radio plays,
the libretto for an opera (the music by Alexander Goehr), a
remarkable and disturbing novel, short prose pieces, works of
criticism. To these must be added translations – notably of T.S.
Eliot, Dylan Thomas, E.E. Cummings and of Shakespeare, the
latter in a version that, in its accuracy and vigour, in its actability,
challenged the famous Schlegel-Tieck edition. (To his great sat-
isfaction he completed King Lear before his death.) But above all
xiiintroduction
there were the poems. He once said in typically self-mocking way
that he produced poems in the same way as rabbits have babies.
The writing of poetry was, he believed, an activity which one had
to pursue like any other craft, experimenting, perfecting skills,
practising with language. At the height of his creative powers
there can hardly have been a day that passed without his writing
not one but several poems. Certain days – or nights – produced
whole sequences.
Some of his critics have seen in this facility a weakness and
undoubtedly there were poems in his prodigious output which
were five-finger exercises, technical experiments, the polish-
ing of writing skills; others were ephemeral because of their
topicality. But the critics were also making a political point; he
reacted too easily, they argued, to events of the day, to politi-
cal happenings in Germany, the Middle East or Vietnam. His
poems, they objected, were the reflex reactions of a tender
conscience. Poetry should be more aloof from politics. This was
to misunderstand the nature of Fried’s political commitment.
Never narrowly defined in terms of party loyalty, it expressed
his resolution to fight tyranny, the abuse of power, doctrinaire
stances, hypocrisy, wherever they appeared. His critics similarly
misunderstood his commitment to use in that fight the weapons
of language, of wit, of irony and invective; all his skills as a
writer. He believed that he had to follow a categorical imperative:
to be both politically engaged and poetically creative. Indeed
he was unable to see how it is possible to unravel emotional
commitments from political ones or to split these off in turn
from the business of writing. On the political level his success
was demonstrated by the way in which lines and formulations
from his poetry were taken up by the German student movement
and, more generally, by the extraordinary reach of his published
works. The Liebesgedichte, from which many of the poems in
this volume come, was first published in 1979. When the 1987
edition appeared the print run was from 166 to 173,000. Even
when they were ephemeral his poems were the utterances of a
xiiiLove Poems
voice which in the Sixties and later was listened to with respect
by audiences in Germany.
One important reason for his success was that he spoke, as
few others were able to speak, to that generation whose parents
had lived as adults through the Thirties and the war – who had
therefore been in one way or another involved in the life and
politics of the Third Reich. Fried was a member of that same
generation as their parents, an anti-Fascist, a man of the Left, a
Jew who had lost many of his family at the hands of the Nazis.
What set him apart and gave his words a particular resonance
was that he was prepared to speak about politics of the past and
the present with indignation but also with a humanity which
saw even men and women perverted by evil to be themselves the
victims of tyranny. He understood the questionings and dissat-
isfactions of the post-war generations, their need to look at the
past and to discuss it without the use of mere slogans. He also
understood the impatience and frustrations which led to terror-
ism, which he condemned just as he condemned the inhumanity
and repressive excesses of the German state apparatus. But he
was also not afraid to express deep human emotions, to describe
the difficulties and rewards of “love relationships” into which
he entered with openness and a commitment which the younger
generation could recognize and which was undiminished by age.
His voice fell silent before the events of 1989 and the breaking of
the Wall. In the political events that followed it was a voice that
was deeply missed.
What was remarkable about him was his political honesty and
his courage to confront both those who were his opponents on the
Right and those on the Left to whom he extended an often critical
solidarity. His refusal to be silenced brought him into the courts in
Germany, where he was acquitted, and into public confrontations
in which his tenacity and power of argument wrung apologies
from members of the German Establishment. His condemnation
of Zionism and of the policies of the State of Israel together with
his championing of the Palestinian cause brought down on him
xivintroduction
the threats and crude abuse of Zionists. In Germany politicians of
the Right called for his works to be burnt. On the Left his friends
at times found him excessively tolerant of political enemies; but it
was his firm conviction that one may – indeed must – attack one’s
opponent’s ideas relentlessly, but that the opponent as a human
being deserves to be treated with respect. It was an attitude which
extended to ex-Nazis and neo-Nazis. It was a political tactic which
some found rested too much on the idea of individual salvation,
on the conviction that all human beings, can one but find the way
to address them, are open to reason.
This remarkable man bore the stamp of a rich and intricate
cultural heritage. Growing up in Vienna between the wars, he
was educated in a humanist classical tradition that went back
to the Enlightenment. His knowledge of German literature and
thought was extensive and deep. It naturally included the writ-
ings of Marx. Although never a practising Jew he was conscious
of belonging to the same Central European cultural tradition as
produced many of the great thinkers and artists of the twentieth
century. He also knew and delighted in the stories from the shtetls
of Eastern Europe, about the doings, sayings and paradoxes of
the wonder rabbis, which were one legacy of his Jewish origins.
He was profoundly influenced by psychoanalytic theory, although
he typically could not easily be classified in terms of any par-
ticular school. He was marked by the political events in Austria
from the suppression of the workers’ movements and the rise of
Austro-Fascism to the Anschluss. In exile in London, he rejected
Stalinism as he rejected Zionism. In his political thinking he was
deeply influenced by the libertarian teachings of Marcuse and
the utopianism of Ernst Bloch just as in his approach to human
psychology he owed much to Ronald Laing and Margaret Miller.
These were some of the intellectual influences that went to shape
him. But what obsessed him was an interest in language, and in
particular the German language – for great as was his mastery
of and knowledge of English (witness his translations), English
always remained in a real sense a foreign language which he held
xvLove Poems
i
Was es is t
Es ist Unsinn
sagt die Vernunft
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe
Es ist Unglück
sagt die Berechnung
Es ist nichts als Schmerz
sagt die Angst
Es ist aussichtslos
sagt die Einsicht10
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe
Es ist lächerlich
sagt der Stolz
Es ist leichtsinnig
sagt die Vorsicht
Es ist unmöglich
sagt die Erfahrung
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe20
4W h at I t I s
It is madness
says reason
It is what it is
says love
It is unhappiness
says caution
It is nothing but pain
says fear
It has no future
says insight10
It is what it is
says love
It is ridiculous
says pride
It is foolish
says caution
It is impossible
says experience
It is what it is
says love20
5F rag en u n d A n t wo rt e n
Wo sie wohnt?
Im Haus neben der Verzweiflung
Mit wem sie verwandt ist?
Mit dem Tod und der Angst
Wohin sie gehen wird
wenn sie geht?
Niemand weiß das
Von wo sie gekommen ist?
Von ganz nahe oder ganz weit
Wie lange sie bleiben wird?10
Wenn du Glück hast
solange du lebst
Was sie von dir verlangt?
Nichts oder alles
Was soll das heißen?
Dass das ein und dasselbe ist
Was gibt sie dir
– oder auch mir – dafür?
Genau soviel wie sie nimmt
Sie behält nichts zurück20
Hält sie dich
– oder mich – gefangen
oder gibt sie uns frei?
Es kann uns geschehen
dass sie uns die Freiheit schenkt
6Q u e s t io n s a n d A n sw ers
Where does it live?
In the house next to despair
Who are its kin?
Death and fear
Where will it go
when it does go?
No one knows
Where does it come from?
From very near or very far
How long will it stay?10
If you’re lucky
as long as you live
What does it ask for you?
Nothing or everything
What does that mean?
That it’s one and the same
What does it give you
– or me – in return?
Exactly what it takes
It keeps back nothing20
Does it keep you
– or me – prisoner
or does it set us free?
It can happen to us
that it gives us freedom
7Frei sein von ihr
ist das gut oder schlecht?
Es ist das Ärgste
was uns zustoßen kann
Was ist sie eigentlich30
und wie kann man sie definieren?
Es heißt dass Gott gesagt hat
dass er sie ist
8To be free of it
is that good or bad?
It is the worst
that can befall us
What is it really30
and how can one define it?
They say that God said
he is it
9E in e K l ein ig k eit
für Catherine
Ich weiß nicht was Liebe ist
aber vielleicht
ist es etwas wie das:
Wenn sie
nach Hause kommt aus dem Ausland
und stolz zu mir sagt: „Ich habe
eine Wasserratte gesehen“
und ich erinnere mich an diese Worte
wenn ich aufwache in der Nacht
und am nächsten Tag bei der Arbeit10
und ich sehne mich danach
sie dieselben Worte
noch einmal sagen zu hören
und auch danach
dass sie nochmals genau so aussehen soll
wie sie aussah
als sie sagte –
Ich denke, das ist vielleicht Liebe
oder doch etwas hinreichend Ähnliches
10A t r if l e
for Catherine
I don’t know what love is
but perhaps
it is something like this:
When she
come home from abroad
and tells me proudly: “I saw
a water rat”
and I remember these words
when I wake up in the night
and next day at my work10
and I long
to hear her say
the same words once more
and for her
to look exactly the same
as she looked
when she said them –
I think that is maybe love
or something rather like it
11S c hmu t z ko n k u r r en z a m M o r g e n
für Catherine
Als ich Liebe vorschlug
lehntest du ab
und erklärtest mir:
„Ich habe eben
einen liebenswürdigen Mann
kennengelernt
im Traum
Er war blind
und er war ein Deutscher
Ist das nicht komisch?“10
Ich wünschte dir schöne Träume
und ging hinunter
an meinem Schreibtisch
aber so eifersüchtig
wie sonst kaum je
12M or n in g M u d s l in g in g
for Catherine
When I proposed love
You declined
And explained to me:
“I just
met
a nice man
in a dream
He was blind
And he was a German
Isn’t that funny?”10
I wished you sweet dreams
And went down
To my desk
But jealous
I was hardly ever before
13N ac h d em E rwac h en
Catherine erinnert sich
an etwas das sie
an etwas erinnert
doch zuerst
weder was
noch woran
Dann weiß sie
es war ein Geruch
und dann
ein Geruch der sie10
an Weihnachten erinnert
aber
kein Tannen- und Kerzengeruch
und ganz gewiß
auch kein Geruch nach Backwerk
Sondern was?
Sondern Seifengeruch
Der Geruch einer Flüssigkeit
die sie und ihr Bruder
bekamen zu Weihnachten20
für ganz große Seifenblasen
Nun ist die Erinnerung
wieder da
ganz groß
und ganz rund
und spiegelt ihr Kindergesicht
und schillert
und dann zerplatzt sie
14O n Wa k in g Up
Catherine remembers
something
that reminds her of something
but at first
not what
or what of
Then she knows
it was a smell
and then
a smell that10
reminds her of Christmas
but
not the smell of pine and candles
and certainly
not of baking
But what?
But the smell of a soap
The smell of a liquid
she and her brother
got for Christmas20
for great big soap bubbles
Now the memory
is back
very big
and very round
and mirrors her child’s face
and is full of colours
and then it bursts
15You can also read
