Georg Trakl: Poems (Field Translation Series) (Volume 30)

Georg Trakl, whose brief and dramatic development left an enduring mark on poetry, not just for German-speaking writers but for the world at large, is freshly presented in this remarkable new collection of translations by Stephen Tapscott. Tapscott's brilliant introduction, his careful selection of poems, and his sensitive and unerring versions of the originals, make this volume a welcome addition to the library of all poetry lovers, both those who are already familiar with this great poet and those who are yet to meet him. "Trakl's poems have astonished generations of readers with their fierce sadnesses, deceptive complexity, and subtle elegance. Tapscott's translations are a marvel, capturing in English the vitality of Trakl's silences; his lean, succinct poetic lines; his grim wit; and his quest for the ineffable in the face of often harrowing circumstances. I have long admired Georg Trakl's poetry and, with the help of Tapscott's nuanced introduction and fine translations, I read it in fresh and startling ways." --Kevin Prufer "Stephen Tapscott's translations and eloquent preface will bring a new generation of readers to the 'mirror-image-world' of an essential poet (and a primal poetic myth). Trakl's work bridges Romanticism and Expressionism and could be seen to prefigure Sachs, Celan, Bachmann, while, perhaps unbeknownst to both poets, standing in tandem at the gate of European modernism with Apollinaire. Tapscott's translations are themselves haunting poems in English, recreating Trakl's signature landscapes and landslides from lyric to horror." --Marilyn Hacker