"You like difficult subjects, don't you?" (Selected Poems 1956-1993 - Gunter Grass)

Member Name: theediscerning

Product:	Selected Poems 1956-1993 - Gunter Grass
Date:	23/11/02 (512 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some classics, A modern-day classic author

Disadvantages: Not to many's taste, Too deep lots of the time

The title of this op comes from a comment theediscerning's friend MALU left after another of his ops - you'll just have to read them all to find which one. And here it has to be said, that theediscerning has come up with a bit of a challenge worthy of anyone. Probably, too, MALU is much better qualified to write about the subject, both being German. And it is, of course, hoped she will forgive theediscerning for the quotation.

Guenter Grass (for that is how one should spell him if one is too lazy to look for an umlaut) is one of the major names in German literature, of a kind that theediscerning cannot think of a British comparison. He is respected, if not liked, in his outpourings, in print and sometimes art form, and his TV work and journalism, and basicaly spreads himself and his sensible opinions around. No British author has such high-brow esteem, or presence.

Under review here is the Faber and Faber poetry book from 1999, where what is presumably the best of his verse has been translated by Michael Hamburger. We start with a brief intro, during which we are told Grass is a bit like a court jester, in that he sees his role as being close to power, and telling the upper crust the unlovely truth. The introduction gives us some slight info on his influences and style, but a lot more is needed.

We open with Open Wardrobe, which may be seen as a bit of a light opener, after seeing some of what follows. Flag of Poland is next, and is immediately obscure to our eyes. Check this verse out...

Die Tage schrumpfen, Aepel auf dem Schrank,
die Freiheit fror, jetzt brennt sie in den Oefen,
kocht Kindern Brei und malt die Knoechel rot.

or...

The days are shrinking, apples on the cupboard,
liberty froze, now it burns in the stoves,
cooks porridge for children and paints ankles red.

They are one and the same, for this is a bilingual edition, with the German facing the English transla
tions. Here you can easily see that there will be some work to be done in your own translations, *from* the English... And just the taster of those three lines gives some clues to how it sounds in the native tongue for which it was intended, gutteral, lumpen, masculine, hardly ever prosaic or sonically attractive.

Prophet's Fare is another poem along to come along shortly, and is a decent political allegory. As theediscerning tried to suggest above, Grass's concerns are of the politics of the day, and however overtly, he is nearly always to be found lambasting something to do with society or those in power.

In this volume, some short, bitty poems include Family Matters, which in just 5 lines has a time-bending "narrative", and in the line "worry about their parents' future" to this reader raises the question of Nazi guilt, which so much of German culture is thinking about - from this week's teledrama comedy about Hitler, to Felidae, the thriller with the cat. But this is a digression...

Nursery Rhyme is apparently the author's favourite of all his poetry, and probably we can now include this author in that as well. Easy, repetitive lines give cause to the title, and a plain and simple message is carried across the page. Very good indeed. (Regular readers will know theediscerning dislikes quoting poetry he reviews, and he never quotes from the best bits, so...)

Folding Chairs brings up the subject of emigration, as the furniture of the title cross the Atlantic to the Land of the Free (allegedly). Again, another difficult subject for virtually all Germans since 1945, if not before.

Not all of this can be passed over with such levity, however, as Magical Exercise, on page 37, will prove. Just what is this one about? Over to MALU... no, didn't think she'd "get it" either. And again, on page 53, comes proof the book in itself is flawed. We need rather detail
ed notes to explain a lot of these verses. Otherwise what are we to make of ...

My eraser was found.
In the ruins of Lehrter Station
it was helping the demolition workers...

Is there a particular example in recent German history of a rubber remodelling a rail station - or, for that matter - anything that could possibly be translated into such as an allegory? No, thought not.

But worry not, for there is still great stuff to be had. Marriage is tender, much more personal than all the rest of the contents, and much better than many as a result. The same can be said of Love, which in this volume comes after Marriage. (Was that intentional?!)

This being a selected collection, it is interesting to see where the contents were originally published. Here, the vast majority are from a 1960 Grass book, Gleisdreieck, which seems suggest that since then he has produced piffle. However, in the few occasions when his verse has been made public, it has been in small, low-quantity printings, several times with his own pictures to accompany. So output as witnessed here is naturally skewed.

The contents of Gleisdreieck here end with several political verses of note, protesting against protest songs as inefficient, not enough, and so on. Don't take the easy way out - Do Something, as the best is called. Don't think that my going on a protest march you've done all, because you haven't started.

There is very little representation from the 1970s and 1980s in this volume, and it closes with what is called in both German and English "Novemberland", a dozen or so sonnets discussing Germany as a whole and her current situation - with guest workers being torched, for example, and her querulous place in the modern Europe. The allegories here are of varying depth, and again a German person (or greater Germanophile than theediscerning) is really needed to judge.

So, overall the verse is cha
llenging, serious and intelligent, sometimes obscure and many times abstract. There is hardly ever a rhyming scheme, in fact only "Novemberland" and Nursery Rhyme breach the boundaries of blank verse.

But here this seems to matter little. Where the authorial viewpoint is actually discernible there is always a sense of it being correct. The prestige Grass bears, even now in his ninth decade in Germany, somehow comes across through the translation, which at times seems a bit inexact, yet sticking always to the intent of the originals.

As an author, Grass will always be remembered, if at all, for The Tin Drum, and possibly some other prose. But this volume is a handy introduction, both to him and to modern German poetry. The verse is difficult to recommend, however, for the average reader, so although theediscerning rates it, there will not be a "recommend to others" blob at the foot of this op, as it is not a recommendation that could be given out to the world as a whole. (He doesn't mean that to sound elitist, though - he merely cares that he doesn't make out that everyone should grasp the gist of all of this, as he doesn't for one).

As a book, it contains several really good and interesting verses, which are great in any language, if one is in the right mood for them (but still several that seem to have little merit). However there really should be a greater amount of introduction, and many many more notes for our edification, especially when you scroll around this page for the price - yowzah!. Sadly to say, theediscerning can only think we will have to wait until Grass dies before the definitive, academical volumes come out, and we can all find out what was meant. In the meantime, those who like a challenge in translating the obscure will be able to sit back and enjoy. With the occasional rubbing of furrowed brows...

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