It is no coincidence that the poet Volker von Törne was, for many years, the Director of Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste (Action for Atonement – Service for Peace), the German charitable organisation for education and reparation in countries throughout the world that have suffered under fascism and other oppressive regimes. His father had been a member of the SS in Germany in the Second World War, and as a consequence, his poetry is written from the perspective of someone who suffered, through no fault of his own, from terrible guilt after the war. This selection from von Toerne's collected poems is particularly significant in that it is a powerful and moving articulation of the psychological burden still carried by countless people today whose voices are not often heard, a burden which von Toerne's powerful, poignant and sometimes angry poetry helps us all the better to understand.
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Memorial to the Future
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Elegie (1)
Dörfer, windschief im Regen
Wiesen im Weidenlicht
Die sanfte Schönheit
Der Mädchen am Abend
Überm Zaun des Flieders
Duftender Schnee
Land, ausgelöscht
Aus allen Atlanten
Verbrannte Erde, Asche
Von Wurzeln durchbohrt
Worte, geworfen wie Steine
In steigende Wasser
Kürzer werden die Tage
Kälter das Licht
In den Händen nichts
Als meine Trauer
Sammle ich in meinen Augen
Die Scherben des Himmels
Elegy (1)
Villages, wind-bent in rain
Meadows in willow-light
The gentle beauty
Of girls in the evening
A lilac-tree over the fence
Sweet-smelling snow
This land wiped out
From every atlas
Scorched earth, ashes
Pierced by roots
Words thrown like stones
Into rising waters
The days are growing shorter
And the light colder
In my hands nothing
But grief
In my eyes I gather up
The fragments of the sky
Nachricht
Sie haben die Erde
vermessen.
Sie erklären
die Sonne,
durchschauen
den Wind.
Der Regenbogen
ist ihnen untertan. Jetzt
fliegt der Greif. Der Tazzelwurm
schlägt seine Klauen in Beton.
Message
They have measured
the earth.
They explain
the sun,
interpret
the wind.
The rainbow
is in their power. Now
the Griffin flies. The Tatzelwurm
drives its claws into concrete.
The Tatzelwurm, like the Griffin, is a mythical creature. Whereas the Griffin is part lion and part eagle, the Tatzelwurm, which, according to legend, lives in the Alps, is half cat and half lizard.
Arbeitgeber
Seine Kinder laufen
barfuß. Seine Frau
geht betteln. Er nagt
am Hungertuch. Weinend
d...
Table of contents
- CONTENTS
- Series Editor’s note
- Translator’s Preface
- Introduction
- Wassili am Weg
- Vasily on the Road
- Endlösung
- Final Solution
- Deutscher Psalm
- German Psalm
- Abschied
- Leaving
- Wege
- Paths
- Rauch
- Smoke
- Was mir die Leute sagen
- What People Tell Me
- Erinnerung an die Zukunft
- Memorial to the Future
- An Hölty
- To Hölty
- Pogrom
- Pogrom
- Erinnerung an einen Oberlehrer
- Memorial to a Schoolmaster
- Krähenflügel
- The Wing of the Crow
- Am Wegrand
- By the Wayside
- Wege der Asche
- On Paths of Ashes
- Herbstfeier
- Autumn Festival
- Sieger der Geschichte
- History’s True Heroes
- Elegie (1)
- Elegy (1)
- Nachricht
- Message
- Arbeitgeber
- Employer
- An Attila József
- To Attila József
- Masurischer Sommer
- Summer in the Masurian Lakes
- Mittagslicht
- Midday Light
- Elegie (2)
- Elegy (2)
- Am Schreibtisch
- At This Desk
- Diesseits
- Over Here
- Im Fahrtwind
- In the Rush of Air
- Nachmittagsbesuch
- An Afternoon Visit
- Vaterlandslos
- Free of my Fatherland
- Epigramm
- Epigram
- Frühlingsgedicht
- Spring Song
- Flugblatt
- Flyer
- Selbstgespräch
- Soliloquy
- Rückzug
- Withdrawal
- Notstand
- State of Emergency
- Anrufung meines Engels
- I Call upon my Angel
- Beim Lesen der Zeitung
- While Reading the Paper
- Stunde der Wölfe
- Hour of the Wolves
- Gedanken im Mai
- Thoughts in May
- Bilder
- Images
- An Ahasver
- To Ahasuerus
- An Hölderlin
- To Hölderlin
- Notstandsübung
- Emergency Drill
- Eiszeit
- Ice Age
- Erinnerung an Carl Sandburg
- Remembering Carl Sandburg
- Auf dem Boden des Grundgesetzes (1976)
- The Constitution (1976)
- Kriegsspiel
- War Game
- Regierungserklärung
- A Statement by the Government
- Pastorale
- Pastoral
- Trinkspruch
- Drinking Song
- Liebesgedicht
- Love Poem
- Zu Beginn der Achtzigerjahre. Nach Catull
- At the Start of the Eighties: After Catullus
- Biographical Notes
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Yes, you can access Memorial to the Future by Volker von Törne, Jean Boase-Beier,Anthony Vivis in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & European Poetry. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.