Dialog International

New Translations of Hilde Domin

      I first encountered the poet Hilde Domin in a poetry seminar in Freiburg where we discussed the anthology Doppelinterpretationen - published by Hilde Domin.  The book consists of individual short poems by some of the most important postwar German poets - Günter Eich, Peter Huchel, Ingeborg Bachmann, Nelly Sachs, and - Hilde Domin.  Each poem is followed by a self-interpretation of the poet and then an interpretation by a literary critic.  Hilde Domin's contribution was Lied zur Ermutigung II ('Song for Encouragement II') followed by her own interpretation and then interpreted by the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer. The short poem is in many ways representative of Hilde Domin's oeuvre.

Lange wurdest du um die türelosen
Mauern der Stadt gejagt.

Du fliehst und streust
Die verwirrten Namen der Dinge
Hinter Dich

Vertrauen, dieses schwerste
ABC.

Ich mache ein kleines Zeichen
In die Luft,
Unsichtbar,
Wo die neue Stadt beginnt,
Jerusalem,
Die goldene,
Aus Nichts

 

This poem contains many of the themes that reoccur in so many of Hilde Domin's poems.  First there is the persecution ("gejagt").  Domin (née Löwenstein) was a Jew, and along with her husband Erwin Walter Palm, was went into exile to flee the Nazi terror ("du fliehst")  leaving behind her German language (for Domin, a kind of Heimat).  Despite losing everything the Lyric-I can learn to trust ("Vertrauen") and evokes the dream home of the Jewish diaspora - Jerusalem.  This sense of optimism in the face of evil and Nothingness ("aus Nichts")  is why Hilde Domin has been called " the poet of "dennoch" ("nevertheless"). 

The book Doppelinterpretationen also has an introductory essay by Domin - Über das Interpretieren von Gedichten - which outlines in abbreviated form some of the ideas in her book on postwar poetics  Wozu Lyrik heute which was in part written as a response - or rejection - of Adornp's famous statement "To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric." For Domin, poetry after Auschwitz is absolutely essential.  

HIlde Domin is largely unknown in the US and other English-speaking countries, even though her reputation has only grown in Germany, where today she is recognized as an important postwar poet along with Marie-Luise Kaschnitz and Peter Huchel.  Nelly Sachs is better-known here since her poems were published in English translation after she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958.  Finally, this year we have TWO bilingual English-German collections of Hilde Domin's poem published here: one- With My Shadow: The Poems of Hilde Domin,  by Sarah Kafatou, a writer and translator who knew Hilde Domin, and also The Wandering Radiance: Selected Poems of Hilde Domin, by Maine poet and German Scholar Mark S. Burrows.  I have read Mark Burrows book but not Sarah Kafatou's translations. Julie Enszer has an interesting piece in the Jewish Book Council comparing both translations. I found The Wandering Radiance extremely valuable, not only for the wonderful translations, but also for the foreword by Hilde Domin's biographer Marion Tauschwitz (see my review of her biography) and Mark Burrows' excellent essay about Domin's life and poetic style.  The book also has a translation of a short essay by Hilde Domin on 'Exile and Homeland' - the two poles she synthesizes in so many of her poems. 

Compared to the work of other postwar poets - notably that of her friend Paul Celan - Domin's poems are accessible, even to some extent 'simple' - "Vollkommenheit im Einfachen" as the critic Walter Jens described them. This explains, to some extent, her popularity in Germany. Mark Burrows has some insightful comments on her style:

"What distinguishes her poetic voice is her startling use of metaphor, unexpected twists of diction, and a syntax often compressed to the point of abruptness. She eschewed rhyme and meter in favor of free verse from the the start, and by her third collection (Hier), published in 1964, had abandoned punctuation almost entirely. The temperament of her poems depends on a distinct musicality shaped largely by the rhythm of speech. Plainness? Perhaps, but one carried by a sense of "fullness: that demands readers' attention in "listening" their way into the sound and pace of her voice - and their own."

"Plainness" with a sense of "fullness" - presents some distinct challenges to the translator. Mark Burrows does a superb job in recreating Hilde Domin's unique poetic voice for the English readers:  Here is Burrows' translation of her poem Wie wenig ich nütze bin: However Little Use I Am

However Little Use I Am

However little use I am,

I lift a finger and leave behind

not even the smallest stroke

in the air.

Time smudges my face,

It has already begun.

Behind my steps in the dust

rain washes the street clean

like a housewife.

I was here

I cross over

without a trace.

The elms along the way

nod to me as I come,

a green a blue a golden greeting,

and forget me

before I’ve passed by.

I cross over-

But leave perhaps the small sound of my voice,

my laughter and my tears

and also the trees’ greeting in the evening

on a small scrap of paper.

And in passing,

entirely without intention,

I light one or another

of the streetlamps

In the hearts along the roadside

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vergangenheitsbewältigung - except in Bavaria

The current scandal involving the Bavarian politician Herbert Aiwanger proves Faulker's dictuum that In Germany "The past is never dead. It's not even past."  For Aiwanger, some sins from his youth have finally caught up with him: 

The deputy premier of Bavaria, the German state where Munich is located, is ensnared in a scandal that involves a Nazi pamphlet from his high school years and could affect multiple upcoming elections.

According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Hubert Aiwanger, now head of the populist Free Voters party, distributed a pamphlet that mocks victims of the Holocaust when he was 17.

Aiwanger said he did not write the pamphlet, which he called “disgusting and inhumane,” but he admitted to having copies of it in his school bag at one point. The pamphlet called Auschwitz an “entertainment quarter” and proposed a quiz titled “Who is the biggest traitor to the Fatherland?”

Some of his former High School classmates have come forward and recall that Aiwanger was an admirer of the Nazis and had even given the Hitler salute on occasion.  The problem is not so much Aiwanger's teenage pranks- many, if not everyone of us, did some stupid things in our youth.  The problem is that Aiwanger has tried to deflect the blame for the disgusting flyer, and - in Trumpian style - claims that HE is the victim of a defamation campaign by the press.  Also, a broad majority of Germans seem to sympathize with Aiwanger. 

As Eva-Maria Schnurr writes in Der Spiegel, the entire affair points to a bigger problem with how Germans deal honestly with the Holocaust: 

Der Umgang mit dem Fall wird zeigen, wie ernst es dieses Land tatsächlich meint mit der Aufarbeitung von Nationalsozialismus und Holocaust. Kommt Aiwanger durch mit angeblichen Erinnerungslücken (im Vergessen waren die Deutschen schon immer sehr gut), einer floskelhaften späten Entschuldigung und dem Abtun als Jugendsünde?

Dann würde das Flugblatt seine damals wohl beabsichtigte Wirkung tatsächlich entfalten: Es würde nicht nur die Holocaustopfer verhöhnen, sondern auch all jene, die es tatsächlich ernst meinen mit der Verantwortung, die aus Nationalsozialismus und Holocaust erwächst. Es würde Gedenkstättenarbeit ebenso lächerlich machen wie die vielen überregionalen und lokalen Initiativen, die sich für das Erinnern einsetzen.

Kommt Aiwanger damit durch, würde das auch international deutlich machen, dass deutsche Erinnerungskultur doch nicht mehr ist als »Gedächtnistheater« (Michal Bodemann), das, wenn es ernst wird, ohne Konsequenzen bleibt.

Well, Aiwanger will keep his job as Deputy Premier of Bavaria.  And when he showed up at a beer tent outside of Munich the crowd showered him with applause and shouts of support.