Thank you, Martin, for explaining to me what was obvious to you. Allusions
function where writers and their readers have the same memories in their
minds, and Dehmel never meant much to me. My own published poems needed
quite a number of notes (as T.S.Eliot's Waste land needed), and they contain
a lot of irony.
As for your suggestion that there is a special post-war situation of the
German language: I suppose that on one hand the average vocabulary has been
broadened as a result of the movements of population (from East to West,
from North to South). On the other hand, many word have lost their innocence
because they had been used for NS propaganda and in literature akin to NS
ideology. Especially words with a pathetic sound have come under suspicion.
Therefore we have experienced a serious break in the continuity of our
language. That does not mean that archaic words have to be avoided; but when
they are used within an English context it may be allowed to ask whether the
author is using them on purpose. (I would not mind your correcting my
English!) I did not mean to make comments on the poem as a whole.
Klaus
----- Original Message -----
From: Martin J. Walker <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 10:42 AM
Subject: Re: I am noble! Hear me squeak!
> A belated comment, as the poet has preferred not to respond: of course the
> word "Aufklärung" can mean both "reconnaissance" and "enlightenment" in a
> poem, Klaus, that's the sort of thing poetry does, it's also called
"irony";
> and as for "Verklärte", well, it should be obvious that Dominic is
referring
> to Schoenberg's (Dehmel's) _Verklärte Nacht_ and altering the vowel in an
> "illuminating" way ~ night and not or nought, Nacht und Nicht, these words
> are connected in our minds if not in any formal etymology; no coincidence
in
> a poem that there _is_ a German term "Vernichtungskrieg". The only babies
to
> come out of this fuck-up are dead babies.
> By the way, "verklärt" may be archaic in your corner of the woods, but
where
> I'm living you can read and hear expressions like "ein verklärtes
Lächeln".
> I've noticed that a lot of Germans are provincial timeists with regard to
> language: if one doesn't say it in their milieu it's non-existent or
> antiquated. Something to do with post-war denial perhaps...
> Dominic has written an excoriating philippic on the ongoing diversionary
> massacre.
> Cheers
> Martin
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