German Poetry Now: A bilingual online-anthology, featured by DAS GEDICHT chapbook
Helmut Krausser
fragments of a tragedy
while cleaning the weapo
a bull
disengag
into the ear to the le
the guy ca
could merely express to fa
condol
translated by Paul-Henri Campbell
+ About the author / Zum Autor
Helmut Krausser was born in 1964 in Esslingen. One of the most successful writers in contemporary German fiction, Helmut Krausser is the master of twisted plots and characters motivated by manic obsessions and kinky passions, often staged in front of the backdrop of grand historical narratives such as the Renaissance, or Puccini’s gardens, or Europe of the 1920s’ cineastes, or Germany during the Nazi regime, or the Socialist GDR. This would be the luxurious but also wacky canopy of his novels such as »Eros« (2006), »Thanatos« (1996), »Melodien« (1993), »Nicht ganz schlechte Menschen« (2012). Then again, we may suddenly find another Helmut Krausser telling us riotously humorous stories set in Berlin during the great rave of the 1990s, the Berlin of mentally woozy hipsters, paintball arenas aiding sexual frustration, hobo soothsayers enlightening pigeons in public parks, dark rooms, or run-down department stores in Neukölln – novels, such as »Einsamkeit und Sex und Mitleid« (2009) or »Der große Bagarozy« (1997), the latter of which became a cult film with Til Schweiger in the leading role. But this author is as much of a polymath as his imagination is polymorphous. He put forth musical compositions that seem like the work of a monomaniac autodidact as well as poetry with a rough verismo feeling. His current volume of poetry is entitled »Verstand & Kürzungen« (Cologne 2014). And finally, there is the neurotic Helmut Krausser who was the chess champion of Upper Bavaria in 2001 and the German champion in Backgammon in 2011. But by looking at the multitude of masks worn by this great dramatist and storyteller synoptically, one may catch a glimpse of the evanescent physiognomy of a writer that will leave a lasting mark on his generation.
»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
