Love Poems Erich Fried - Translated by Stuart Hood

 
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Love Poems
   Erich Fried

Translated by Stuart Hood

         ONEWORLD
          CLASSICS
oneworld 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             39
Love 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.

                                 xi
Love 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

                                  xii
introduction

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

                               xiii
Love 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

                                xiv
introduction

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

                                xv
Love 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

           4
W 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

           5
F 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

                   6
Q 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

                  7
Frei 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

                8
To 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

             9
E 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

                   10
A 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

              11
S 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

                       12
M 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

                13
N 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

               14
O 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

               15
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