New and On View: Mudlark Issue No. 57 (2015)
http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/mudlark57/reidel.html
Chants
Poems from Franz Werfel's Judgment Day
Translated by James Reidel
"These poems stand quite isolated in German literature."
— Curt von Faber du Faur
From the Translator's Note: Chants (Gesnge) comprises part of a longer
collection of poems, Judgment Day (1919) by Franz Werfel (1890-1945).
Werfel is still a neglected figure, but he was once an imposing figure
even in world literature and is still known for great (albeit
conventional) novels such as The Forty Days of Musa Dagh (1933/tr. 1934)
and The Song of Bernadette (1942) and strikingly gemlike outlier works,
such as Pale Blue Ink in a Lady's Hand (1940/tr. 2012). While his
reputation has fallen into neglect, during his lifetime he enjoyed both
critical and financial success. This too can be said of his poetry during
the years just before and during World War I. Print runs of his books sold
out. He read in theaters, to "packed houses," reciting his verse in a
declamatory style that had to be seen and heard. As a literary impresario
in Vienna, he organized readings with such opening acts as the beautiful
actress Billy Blei reading Robert Walser's poems. Werfel had also admired
the work of George Trakl, whose first book had been chosen by him for
publication.
Chants
Gesang der Memnons-Säule > Song of Memnon’s Column
Novembergesang > November Canto
Dezembergesang > December Canto
Fragment der Eurydike > Fragment of Eurydice
Der Ruf > The Call
Verlust > Loss
Vergessen > Forgetting
An Eine Lerche > To a Skylark
Trinklied > Drinking Song
A little appendix: Werfel as a man of what faith?
Der Tempel > The Temple
Absalom > Absalom
Gewaltige Mutter > Almighty Mother
Schuld > Guilt
Müdigkeit > Weariness
Der Gerichtsherr > The Magistrate
Der Widder > The Ram
JAMES REIDEL has published poems in many journals over the years and his
new book of verse, Jim’s Book, is now available from Black Lawrence Press.
He is the biographer of Weldon Kees. With Daniele Pantano, he has
translated Rober Walser’s dramolets—short plays—selections from which
appear in Conjunctions 60 (Spring 2013) and a forthcoming New Directions
pamphlet. He has translated two novels by Werfel, including Pale Blue Ink
in a Lady’s Hand and an expanded and revised translation of The Forty Days
of Musa Dagh, both published by David R. Godine in 2012. He has also
translated two books of poems by Thomas Bernhard in one volume, In Hora
Mortis/Under the Iron of the Moon, a 2006 selection in Princeton
University Press’s Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation. He is
currently finalizing Our Trakl, a three-book collection of the work of
Georg Trakl to mark the centenary of the Austrian poet’s death in 1914.
Spread the word. Far and wide,
William Slaughter
MUDLARK
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