German Poetry Now: A bilingual online-anthology, featured by DAS GEDICHT chapbook
Matthias Politycki
Springtime soundtrack
One, two wasps at the window,
the radio voice from the other side of the street,
a child shrieks piercing the air,
arguing and nagging parents,
a row of car doors slammed shut one by one …
and there the day already drives off.
You stay behind in the chirping silence: you
with all the distress concerning your sick mother,
the melancholy on the account of a previous paramour,
the trouble caused by your colleagues,
the pain in your shoulder and in the wake
of your speedily elapsing life.
Before you go over to the fridge or
call the wrong woman,
don’t forget to look at your desk, at
the vase with the two withered roses,
they, fortunately, are part
of all your misfortunes.
translated by Paul-Henri Campbell
+ German Original / Das OriginalMatthias Politycki
Soundtrack des Frühlings
Ein, zwei Wespen an der Fensterscheibe,
die Radiostimme von der andern Straßenseite,
aufgellend ein Kinderschrei,
Gezirp und Gezeter der Eltern,
der Reihe nach zuklappende Autotüren …
schon fährt dir der Tag davon.
Zurück in der zwitschernden Stille bleibst: du
mit all deinen Sorgen um die kranke Mutter,
der Wehmut um eine frühere Geliebte,
dem Ärger mit den Kollegen,
dem Schmerz in der Schulter und über
dein zügig verrinnendes Leben.
Bevor du zum Kühlschrank gehst oder
die Falsche anrufst,
schau auch auf den Schreibtisch, auf
die Vase mit den zwei vertrockneten Rosen,
sie gehören, zum Glück,
zu all deinem Unglück dazu.
© Matthias Politycki, Hamburg und München
aus: DAS GEDICHT Bd. 22 / Oktober 2014
+ About the author / Zum Autor
Matthias Politycki was born in 1955 in Karlsruhe. His literary work is testosterone driven and famous for its rowdy cocksure humor. Though a deeply intellectual person, who has received a PhD for his dissertation on Nietzsche’s critical response to the German literature of his period, Matthias Politycki’s claim to fame came from two novels, »Weiberroman« (a novel on gender relations, published 1997) and »In 180 Tagen um die Welt« (2008), a satire set in the cruise ship cosmos. Even though Politycki’s literary gaze became more geopolitical and international throughout his career, there is a curious consistency in the approach, tone, and logic from his debut novel »Aus Fälle / Zerlegung des Regenbogens. Ein Entwicklungsroman« (1987) to his recent novel »Samarkand Samarkand« (2013), a story that fuses the genre of romance literature with that of adventure, seasoning this mixture with a pinch of sweet and futuristic apocalypse. Set in Central Asia (Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) in the year 2026, »Samarkand Samarkand« is an emphatic monument to Western values and how easily they may be endangered by terrorism and the actions of belligerent nation states. In an interview, Politycki said regarding his recent novel: »But our own indifference is also dangerous«. The loveliest epithets have been added to his books by commentators, including »exuberant Dionysian mammoth novel« or »cult novel«. The author of twelve volumes of poetry, he presents his verse to the reader in a direct, forceful, narrative tone that only reveals its formal stringency at second glance. Rejecting the avant-gardist labels that early commentators wished to ascribed to his work, Politycki pitched the term Realpoesie against the pretentious highbrow fancies within the more reactionary and self-proclaimed-hermetic segments in the German literary culture. Matthias Politycki was the co-editor of the 20 year jubilee edition of DAS GEDICHT, a poetry magazine which also stands for what has been termed New Readability.
»Lustful Things – Geile Sachen!« im Archiv
»Lustful Things – Geile Sachen!« is an online collection of contemporary German-language poetry in English translation. All poems were taken from issue no. 22 of the German poetry magazine DAS GEDICHT, focused on the Poetry of Things. New English translations by Paul-Henri Campbell as well as the German originals are published here every Wednesday. All poems of this online-collection will also be published in a special print-edition. In order to read previous poems in this series, click here.
»Lustful Things – Geile Sachen!« ist eine Online-Sammlung zeitgenössischer deutschsprachiger Dinggedichte in englischer Übersetzung. Alle Texte sind Band 22 der Zeitschrift DAS GEDICHT entnommen. Jeden Mittwoch erscheint ein neues Gedicht, das von Paul-Henri Campbell ins Englische übertragen wurde, zusammen mit dem deutschen Original. Die Beiträge dieser Online-Anthologie gibt es auch als Sonderausgabe in Buchform. Alle bereits erschienenen Folgen von »Lustful Things – Geile Sachen!« finden Sie hier.
»Lustful Things – Geile Sachen!« im Archiv
