Book Details
- Paperback
- 88 pages
- ISBN 978-0-856463-92-1
Publisher Anvil Press
Details
Michael Hamburger’s fifth collection since the publication of Collected Poems 1941-1994 gathers his poems written during 2004-2006, a productive period in which he has set aside translation work to concentrate on his own poetry.
Michael Hamburger OBE was born in Berlin in 1924, and moved to Britain in 1933. In addition to his many books of poetry, he has published several collections of essays, a study of modernist poetry since Baudelaire, The Truth of Poetry, and an autobiography. He has translated from, among others, Goethe, Hölderlin, Rilke and Celan. His awards include the Goethe Medal of the German Federal Republic for services to German literature and the European Community’s first European Translation Prize for Poems of Paul Celan, now reissued in its third edition.
'The poet’s attitude to ageing is a humble acceptance of what happens: not defiance, rage against the dying of the light; not a Beckett’s articulation of indignity and meaninglessness; not a MacNeice’s call to embark one last time. Ageing, for Hamburger, brought humility, not humiliation. He pictures ageing in images of a rambling old house, a garden going wild, land being lost to the sea, failing physical faculties, recurrence in the natural world. He regards his coming absence quietly, and without a trace of self-pity.' - Mark Roper, Poetry Ireland Review 97
Michael Hamburger OBE was born in Berlin in 1924, and moved to Britain in 1933. In addition to his many books of poetry, he has published several collections of essays, a study of modernist poetry since Baudelaire, The Truth of Poetry, and an autobiography. He has translated from, among others, Goethe, Hölderlin, Rilke and Celan. His awards include the Goethe Medal of the German Federal Republic for services to German literature and the European Community’s first European Translation Prize for Poems of Paul Celan, now reissued in its third edition.
'The poet’s attitude to ageing is a humble acceptance of what happens: not defiance, rage against the dying of the light; not a Beckett’s articulation of indignity and meaninglessness; not a MacNeice’s call to embark one last time. Ageing, for Hamburger, brought humility, not humiliation. He pictures ageing in images of a rambling old house, a garden going wild, land being lost to the sea, failing physical faculties, recurrence in the natural world. He regards his coming absence quietly, and without a trace of self-pity.' - Mark Roper, Poetry Ireland Review 97
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