Shadow Lands: Selected Poems

by Bobrowski, Johannes; Mead, Matthew; Mead, Ruth

• ISBN13: 9780811212762
• ISBN10: 0811212769
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-10-17
• Publisher: New Directions

Summary

Johannes Bobrowski is widely regarded as the most important German poet of this century. He began to write poetry on the Eastern Front in 1941 where, as a 24-year-old German soldier in Kaunas, he saw the "slavering wolves" of the SS drive the "grey processions" over a hill to death. A prisoner-of-war in Russia until 1949, he returned to Berlin to write with a purpose: to inform his countrymen of the history and myths of Eastern Europe and to preserve the memory of his childhood home.
The poems in Shadow Lands reflect Bobrowski's hope, in the words of Michael Hamburger, "that he might succeed poetically in bearing witness to that vanished world," that is, the world of Eastern Germany before the war. With an almost surreal lyrical beauty, he evokes the pre-Christian era of the gods and heroes of the ancient Prussians. The poems also resonate with the most eloquent and picturesque descriptions of Bobrowski's homeland - its rivers, its forests and quiet villages - ultimately leaving us with a sense of "the hiddenness of all perfect things."
Personally intense and far-reaching, these poems have been treasured for their originality, their beauty, and their broad and lasting appeal.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 11
Translator to Translated	p. 19
Call	p. 23
Village	p. 24
Childhood	p. 25
Nymph	p. 26
The Jura	p. 27
The Wives of the Nehrung-Fishers	p. 29
Fishingport	p. 30
To the Jewish Dealer A.S.	p. 31
The Road of the Armies	p. 32
Wagon Trip	p. 34
The Log-Cabin Above the Vilia	p. 35
Vilna	p. 36
By the River	p. 38
The Lithuanian Well	p. 39
Graveyard	p. 40
Dead Language	p. 41
The Spoor in the Sand	p. 42
Lithuanian Songs	p. 43
The Sarmatian Plain	p. 44
Counterlight	p. 46
Pruzzian Elegy	p. 47
Mourning for Jahnn	p. 49
Villon	p. 50
Gongora	p. 51
Gunderode	p. 52
Joseph Conrad	p. 53
Dylan Thomas	p. 54
The Singing Swan	p. 55
Windmill	p. 56
Village Road	p. 57
The Church: Comfort My Affliction	p. 58
On the Tauric Road	p. 59
Landscape with Birds	p. 60
Steppe	p. 61
Lake Ilmen 1941	p. 62
River Poem	p. 63
The Homeland of the Painter Chagall	p. 65
Latvian Songs	p. 66
The Duna	p. 67
Nightway	p. 68
Kaunas 1941	p. 69
The Hawk	p. 71
Return	p. 72
Fire and Snow	p. 73
Lake Shore	p. 74
One Day	p. 75
The Memel	p. 76
The Daubas	p. 78
Winterlight	p. 80
Recall	p. 82
The Call of the Quail	p. 85
The Eagle	p. 87
Plain	p. 88
Calls	p. 89
Dryad	p. 90
At the River	p. 91
Summer Cries	p. 92
Unsaid	p. 93
Tale	p. 94
The Wanderer	p. 95
The Animals at Christmas	p. 96
Winter Cries	p. 97
The Death of the Wolf	p. 98
Hamann	p. 99
Elder-Blossom	p. 100
To the Chassid Barkan	p. 101
Memorial Leaf	p. 102
Weathersigns	p. 103
Lament	p. 105
Sea-Piece	p. 106
French Village	p. 107
Brentano in Aschaffenburg	p. 108
Holderlin in Tubingen	p. 109
Night-Swallows	p. 110
From the Rivers	p. 111
Bird Routes 1957	p. 113
Gertrud Kolmar	p. 114
Else Lasker-Schuler	p. 115
To Nelly Sachs	p. 116
The Don	p. 118
Ikons	p. 119
Deserted Township	p. 120
Under the Edge of Night	p. 121
North Russian Town	p. 122
In Transit	p. 123
Above the River	p. 124
Cathedral 1941	p. 125
Village Church 1942	p. 126
Report	p. 127
Cloister Near Novgorod	p. 128
The Tomsk Road	p. 129
Easter	p. 130
Russian Songs	p. 131
In Memory of B.L.	p. 132
The Ford	p. 133
Log-Cabin	p. 134
Village Music	p. 135
The Road Home	p. 136
Always to be Named	p. 137
Mickiewicz	p. 138
J. S. Bach	p. 143
Pike Time	p. 144
Mozart	p. 145
Midstream	p. 146
Midnight Village	p. 147
The Latvian Autumn	p. 148
With Wings	p. 149
Novgorod (Arrival of the Saints)	p. 150
Shadow Land	p. 152
To Klopstock	p. 153
Experience	p. 154
Encounter	p. 155
Tolmingkehmen Village	p. 156
Towpath	p. 157
Meadowbrook	p. 158
Sanctuary	p. 159
The Volga Towns	p. 160
With Your Voice	p. 161
The End of the Summer Night	p. 162
Calamus	p. 163
The Towns on the Baltic Sea	p. 164
The Water	p. 165
Exodus of the Gods	p. 166
Language	p. 167
In the Empty Mirror	p. 168
When the Rooms	p. 169
Place of Fire	p. 170
Birdsnest	p. 171
Jakub Bart in Ralbitz	p. 172
Arrival	p. 173
Answer	p. 175
Nightfisher	p. 176
Beachcomber	p. 177
Names for the Persecuted	p. 178
To Jawlensky	p. 179
By Day	p. 180
Esther	p. 181
Crypt/Brandenburg Cathedral	p. 182
Town	p. 183
Kolno Dance	p. 184
The Bird, White	p. 185
House	p. 186
Reawakening	p. 188
Silcher's Grave	p. 189
With the Songs of Sappho	p. 190
The Deserted House	p. 191
Precaution	p. 192
Undine	p. 193
Blood Rain	p. 194
Mobile by Calder	p. 195
Estrangement	p. 195
To Holty	p. 196
The Word "Man"	p. 197
Notes	p. 199
Johannes Bobrowski: A Note	p. 203
Index of Titles	p. 205
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