German-American Poet Lisel Mueller Receives the Bundesverdienstkreuz

The TAZ reports that the poet Lisel Mueller, whose family emigrated to the US when she was a young girl, was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz - he Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany - by the Bundespresident Frank-Walter Steinmeier:

„Lisel Mueller wurde für ihre Verdienste als Lyrikerin und Übersetzerin ausgezeichnet“, so das Ordensreferat. Gewürdigt werde ihr Lebenswerk. Allen Bemühungen der taz zum Trotz ist das in Deutschland noch immer so gut wie unbekannt, obwohl es ihr international renommierte Auszeichnungen wie den National Book Award und den Pulitzer Prize eintrug.

Denn Mueller schrieb stets in der Sprache Amerikas. Des Landes, das sie gerettet hatte, wie es in einem ihrer Gedichte heißt: Als Schabernack der Geschichte und unverdientes Glück bestimmt sie darin die Tatsache, dank der Flucht ihrer politisch verfolgten Familie weder Täterin noch Opfer geworden, dem NS-Terror entronnen zu sein. Ein Überlebensschuldsyndrom?

Lisel Mueller was nominated for the prestigious award by Green Party representative Kirsten Kappert-Gonther, who expressed her joy at the news:

In den USA erhielt die wunderbare Dichterin u.a. den Pulitzer Preis. Bei uns müssen wir sie vor dem Vergessen bewahren! Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Lisel Mueller!

The poet, who suffers from Alzheimer, lives today in a nursing facility outside of Chicago.

Here is a poem from her collection Alive Together: New & Selected Poems (1996), which won the Pulitzer Prize.

Things

By Lisel Mueller

What happened is, we grew lonely

living among the things,

so we gave the clock a face,

the chair a back,

the table four stout legs

which will never suffer fatigue.

 

We fitted our shoes with tongues

as smooth as our own

and hung tongues inside bells

so we could listen

to their emotional language,

 

and because we loved graceful profiles

the pitcher received a lip,

the bottle a long, slender neck.

 

Even what was beyond us

was recast in our image;

we gave the country a heart,

the storm an eye,

the cave a mouth

so we could pass into safety.

 

Comments

[Rachel McGovern]

Thanks so much for posting this information about Lisel Mueller. I live far off on an island in the Pacific Northwest. I am retired and these days read a few blogs on subjects of interest to me once important long ago. I worked for the Germans (despite my horrendous German) for the Munich 1972 Olympics so when I came across your blog a couple of years ago, I made a point to check back since I enjoy your writing. Lisel Mueller was a favorite poet of mine and I hadn't thought of her in years. How terrific that she receives this honor though perhaps it will be only her family that can rejoice. Thank you again. That's an especially telling poem of hers you chose.

[David]

Hi Rachel - thanks for your kind words.

It is wonderful that Lisel Mueller is gaining (belatedly) recognition in Germany.

As far as the poem goes, only a poet who acquired English as a second language could have written it.