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Mascha: The Poems of Mascha Kaléko
Dual language - German original with English translations on facing pages. For much of her lifetime, and for decades after her death, Mascha Kaleko was a forgotten poet. With his publications, Andreas Nolte has played a role in changing this. To him, she personifies an all-too-typical example of a German-Jewish artist who was marginalized, intimidated, expelled into exile, and then forgotten. What adds to her obscurity is that her life's intriguing story is not well known, unless one speaks German and can read her poems, or what little has been written about her. This book provides a significant number of translated poems and biographical information from every stage of Kaleko's remarkable life in Berlin, New York, and Jerusalem to an English-speaking audience. Her story and her powerful poetry need to be heard: they shine a light on the darkest of times in the last century and remind us of the lessons that history teaches us.
- GenresPoetry
204 pages, Paperback
Published March 10, 2017
2 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
About the author
Mascha Kaléko
50 books68 followersMascha Kaléko war eine deutschsprachige, der Neuen Sachlichkeit zugerechnete Dichterin.
Charakteristisch für Mascha Kalékos Arbeit ist die Großstadtlyrik mit ironisch-zärtlichem, melancholischem Ton. Als einzige bekannte weibliche Dichterin der Neuen Sachlichkeit wurde sie häufig mit ihren männlichen Kollegen verglichen, so bezeichnete man sie als „weiblichen Ringelnatz“ oder nannte sie einen „weiblichen Kästner“. Die auch Montagsgedichte genannten Strophen rühren durch ihre schnörkellose und direkte Sprache an. Ihre Gedichte wurden – als Chansons vertont – von Diseusen wie Hanne Wieder gesungen oder werden von Sängern wie Rainer Bielfeldt noch heute vorgetragen.
Charakteristisch für Mascha Kalékos Arbeit ist die Großstadtlyrik mit ironisch-zärtlichem, melancholischem Ton. Als einzige bekannte weibliche Dichterin der Neuen Sachlichkeit wurde sie häufig mit ihren männlichen Kollegen verglichen, so bezeichnete man sie als „weiblichen Ringelnatz“ oder nannte sie einen „weiblichen Kästner“. Die auch Montagsgedichte genannten Strophen rühren durch ihre schnörkellose und direkte Sprache an. Ihre Gedichte wurden – als Chansons vertont – von Diseusen wie Hanne Wieder gesungen oder werden von Sängern wie Rainer Bielfeldt noch heute vorgetragen.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 7, 2022
Wie schön ist es, allein zu sein!
Vorausgesetzt natürlich, man
Hat 'einen', dem man sagen kann:
"Wie schön ist es, allein zu sein!"
//
How sweet it is to be alone!
Provided that, of course, there is
'Someone' to whom one can say this:
"How sweet it is to be alone!"
Die vielgerühmte Einsamkeit / The Much-Praised Solitude
▫️MASCHA: The Poems of Mascha Kaléko, translated from the German and annotated by Andreas Nolte, 2017.
#ReadtheWorld21 📍Germany
On 16 September, 2020, Google featured a daily doodle on the main search page - it caught my attention and I clicked to learn more.
The doodle commemorated German Jewish poet Mascha Kaléko, who gained acclaim in 1930s Weimar Republic, before fleeing the Third Reich and living in exile in various countries.
I'd never heard of Kaléko before, so I sought out her work and came across this volume - a German-English dual language poetry and biography edition, meticulously translated, annotated, and compiled by German-American writer Andreas Nolte.
So many details about her life, and therefore a deeper window into her poetry: her successes, her partnerships and publications, her inner workings. She continued to publish in German even as she lived in other countries, and it was on Sept 16, 1974 - the date that Google commemorated - as her return to Berlin after 30+ years in exile, to give a poetry reading and interview in Germany - which was her last before her death.
Kaléko embraced multiple poetic styles in her writing life, the witty and acerbic shorts like the one I shared above to longer poignant, melancholy rememberances.
THE HERMIT
They threw at him stone after stone.
He smiled through the pain from the start.
He wanted to be, not be known.
Not one could see in his heart.
Not one saw him crying alone,
He moved to the desert's lone space.
They threw at him stone after stone.
He built with them his own safe place.
Vorausgesetzt natürlich, man
Hat 'einen', dem man sagen kann:
"Wie schön ist es, allein zu sein!"
//
How sweet it is to be alone!
Provided that, of course, there is
'Someone' to whom one can say this:
"How sweet it is to be alone!"
Die vielgerühmte Einsamkeit / The Much-Praised Solitude
▫️MASCHA: The Poems of Mascha Kaléko, translated from the German and annotated by Andreas Nolte, 2017.
#ReadtheWorld21 📍Germany
On 16 September, 2020, Google featured a daily doodle on the main search page - it caught my attention and I clicked to learn more.
The doodle commemorated German Jewish poet Mascha Kaléko, who gained acclaim in 1930s Weimar Republic, before fleeing the Third Reich and living in exile in various countries.
I'd never heard of Kaléko before, so I sought out her work and came across this volume - a German-English dual language poetry and biography edition, meticulously translated, annotated, and compiled by German-American writer Andreas Nolte.
So many details about her life, and therefore a deeper window into her poetry: her successes, her partnerships and publications, her inner workings. She continued to publish in German even as she lived in other countries, and it was on Sept 16, 1974 - the date that Google commemorated - as her return to Berlin after 30+ years in exile, to give a poetry reading and interview in Germany - which was her last before her death.
Kaléko embraced multiple poetic styles in her writing life, the witty and acerbic shorts like the one I shared above to longer poignant, melancholy rememberances.
THE HERMIT
They threw at him stone after stone.
He smiled through the pain from the start.
He wanted to be, not be known.
Not one could see in his heart.
Not one saw him crying alone,
He moved to the desert's lone space.
They threw at him stone after stone.
He built with them his own safe place.
February 24, 2025
der mond hängt wie ein kitsch-lampion // am märk'schen firmament
July 25, 2020
I really appreciate the side-by-side German and English translation. I also appreciate the biographical details of her life.
The most resonant poems in this collection for me are the ones about exile, the pain of the Holocaust, and the pain of losing her husband to illness.
The most resonant poems in this collection for me are the ones about exile, the pain of the Holocaust, and the pain of losing her husband to illness.
February 18, 2020
Dual language writing of German and English with German on the left page and English on the right page.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews