{"id":3606,"date":"2018-03-31T20:14:31","date_gmt":"2018-04-01T03:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/?p=3606"},"modified":"2018-03-31T21:12:38","modified_gmt":"2018-04-01T04:12:38","slug":"afterwards-a-love-song-by-brecht","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/afterwards-a-love-song-by-brecht\/","title":{"rendered":"Afterwards, a Love Song by Brecht"},"content":{"rendered":"

It feels like I am in one of those creative lulls which leads to translation. After two productive years (2015<\/a> and 2016<\/a>), I didn’t write a single poem in 2017. \u00a0Someone burdened with the vocation of becoming or staying a poet would be fraught at blank pages of <\/em>papier vide que la blancheur d\u00e9fend, all the more so if those pages are on a pixelated screen.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Not I. My language work goes on day in and day out, usually leading nowhere, which is roughly where I expect it to go. Fortunately for me this work is more like play. It often takes the form of endless tinkering with foreign languages, including ones I have only inklings of. Poetic translations, which I have elsewhere defined as poems about poems<\/a>, are one among many reflexes of that phase of play.<\/em><\/p>\n

Arbitrarily entitled <\/em>Afterwards in English, this minor <\/em>Liebeslied by Bertold Brecht was written in 1950, later put into art song by the East German composer Paul Dessau. It is about as simple as a poem can be, ABAB quatrains, that ancient vehicle for folk lyric. Equally simple is the emotion conveyed, the radiance with which the world is imbued when once has experienced a night, one presumes, of romantic passion. There is so much to say that it is better to say little.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Afterwards, I strode alone
\ninto the full light of day
\nand saw, with eyes of my own,
\nthe sheer joy of those at play.<\/p>\n

About that secret hour,
\nknow only that within
\nI feel a new-born power,
\nbeauty in lip and limb.<\/p>\n

Greener, the trees and meadows,
\nmore fragrant the flower,
\nfresher the water which flows
\ndown my skin as I shower.<\/p>\n

After Bertolt Brecht<\/strong><\/p>\n

Als ich nachher von dir ging
\n<\/em>An dem gro\u00dfen Heute
\n<\/em>Sah ich, als ich sehn anfing
\n<\/em>Lauter lustige Leute.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Und seit jener Abendstund<\/em><\/span>
\n Wei\u00dft schon, die ich meine<\/em><\/span>
\n Hab ich einen sch\u00f6nern Mund.<\/em><\/span>
\n Und geschicktere Beine.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Gr\u00fcner ist, seit ich so f\u00fchl<\/em><\/span>
\n Baum und Strauch und Wiese<\/em><\/span>
\n Und das Wasser sch\u00f6ner k\u00fchl<\/em><\/span>
\n Wenn ich\u2019s auf mich gie\u00dfe.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It feels like I am in one of those creative lulls which leads to translation. After two productive years (2015 and 2016), I didn’t write a single poem in 2017. \u00a0Someone burdened with the vocation of becoming or staying a poet would be fraught at blank pages of papier vide que la blancheur d\u00e9fend, all … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Afterwards, a Love Song by Brecht”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[25,21,31],"class_list":["post-3606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-erotic-poetry","tag-deutsch","tag-translation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3606"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3615,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606\/revisions\/3615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}