TRAUMKRAUT / ΟΝΕΙΡΟΧΛΟΗ - Yvan Goll, Τώρα που βρίσκομαι κοντά στο θάνατο ΠΕΡΙΠΛΑΝΗΣΗ - Στους κήπους από γύψο ΓΕΡΟΙ - Η γαρουφαλλιά σάρκα σας ΤΟ ΧΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΚΑΣΤΑΝΙΑΣ - Της καστανιάς το χέρι κρατάει το δικό μου τρομαγμένο χέρι ΣΤΑ ΧΩΡΑΦΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΚΑΦΟΥΡΑΣ - Στης καφουράς τα χωράφια κατοικείς AN CLAIRE-LILIANE - Αγαπημένη, εσύ είσαι το άστρο μου - Το κεφάλι σου από οστά από σύννεφο από φωτιά - Το αριστερό σου χέρι είναι ένα πέταλο λουλουδιού - Κρυφακουστής του ύπνου σου - Ακούω μέσα σου να φεύγει το παγωμένο πουλί της αυγής AN-CLAIRE - Όποιος κι αν σ' ανταμώσει, νιώθει την απειλή της νύχτας - Εγώ ήμουν γεμάτος ερωτήματα και συ η μάγισσα Η ΚΟΡΗ ΤΟΥ ΒΑΘΟΥΣ - Κόρη του βάθους, πώς να σε δεσμεύσω στο γυάλινο κατάλυμα του φεγγαριού Η ΚΑΛΥΒΑ ΤΗΣ ΣΤΑΧΤΗΣ - Δεν είχαμε σπίτι όπως οι άλλοι στη σίγουρη βουνοπλαγιά ΤΟ ΔΕΝΤΡΟ ΤΗΣ ΣΚΟΝΗΣ - Ένα δέντρο από σκόνη ψηλώνει ΤΡΕΙΣ ΩΔΕΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΚΛΑΙΡΗ - Βαθιά στ' όνειρό σου κρέμεται το νέφος της βροχής - Βάλε πάνω στ' αυτί μου το ασημένιο κοχύλι του δικού σου αυτιού - Στο μάτι σου πια τα παλάτια μας Η ΑΛΜΥΡΗ ΛΙΜΝΗ - Το φεγγάρι γλείφει σα χειμωνιάτικο ζώο το αλάτι των χεριών σου ΤΟ ΚΕΦΑΛΙ ΤΗΣ ΕΡΗΜΟΥ - Έχτιζα το κεφάλι σου εκατό χιλιάδες μέρες - Aimee Bleikasten, Ονειροχλόη ή Το μυστικό των λέξεων
Yvan Goll was a French-German poet who was bilingual and wrote in both French and German. He had close ties to both German expressionism and to French surrealism.
Nan Watkins is responsible for bringing this first English translation of the final poems of the brilliant 20th century poet Yvan Goll and such a gift it is. Her introduction to this collection almost stands alone as a novella/biography of this under known poet in the United States. She traces his troubled history from birth to death and shares with us all the extraordinary influences he participated in in the world of the arts in Europe in the post war days. It is extraordinary writing on the part of Nan Watkins!
But the content of this book DREAMWEED (TRAUMKRAUT) is the final poems by the gifted poet/writer Yvan Goll (1891 - 1950). Writing equally well in both German and French reflects his roots as a native of Alsace-Lorraine. Though German by birth he was also Jewish and faced the horrors of Germany's purging, having left his mark on Berlin and the Expressionists he also lived in Switzerland making his name a part of the Dadaist movement while also influence the Surrealists in Paris. There are probably no other writers as influential on art movements as Yvan Goll. His confreres included Chagall, Dali, Weill, James Joyce, Picasso, Apollinaire, Breton, and after his exile to New York his group included William Carlos Williams, Henry Miller, and Kenneth Patchen.
As Watkins states in her introduction, `In these DREAMWEED poems, death becomes Yvan Goll's familiar, and love is his salvation in a winter world of pain. The snow creates a death mask for him. Hi s body is no longer his body but a hostel for his ancestors' bones; his heart is plundered for iron; his kidneys are meat for a bloodhound; his flesh is consumed by eternal fire.' Some examples:
OLD MEN Your carnation-white flesh Lives off scrawny birds And thereby catches fire
You old men, sing slower In the shifting wind And let the sun crumble Between your fingers
Blue-feathered sleep Has the teeth of death And the voice of lime
SOUTH The South Wind rattles in my vertebrae A door in my chest bursts open But of all the doors which one is it? Tell me which it is so I can flee from myself
South brotherly South Brush the question form my brow Thaw this loner free From the grieving glaciers
THE ASCENSION Like the lark I fell head over heels Into the domes of your eyes Seeking in their azure my source
I sand intending to kidnap you From the half-sleep of ancestors and the dead
Immortal, you strolled alongside Castle ruins of the moon And my dark harp did not reach you
Imperceptibly your head turned toward the East
I have never found the way back to my native gardens
Nan Martin places her translations opposite the original German poems, an homage to the poet's first version. What this book contains is a gathering of emotions and confessions and perceptions of an artist who graced the universe fully during his short lifetime. This is a very special book from Black Lawrence Press, a gift to English speaking audiences who have too long been deprived of Yvan Goll's genius.
They're good translations as far as I can tell; the language is poetic (if a little intense at times), and I'm not fluent in German, but I know a little (it's somewhat intuitive), and may read more of the originals later. Seems like an interesting person.