Question for German speakers. What's your favorite piece of German poetry?
I have been not all that successfully trying to teach myself German and I found that I soon got bored with practice dialogue in language courses and reading the news on Deutsche Welle, so I sought out the kind of literature that got me excited about writing in the first place.
I already loved Rilke in translation so I worked my way through several of the poems in Das Stunden-Buch, but I think my favorite is still the first poem I was able to read and understand in the original German: Weltende by Jakob van Hoddis.
It has everything I love about the written word: it's apocalyptic and grandiose with surrealistic imagery, but is also grounded in the mundane experience of being human, the tension between those two different tones being used to humorous effect, and the sound and rhythm of the words amplify the meaning and propel it along untill it crashes into its final image, which to my ear ar least, falls with sort of an intentional dull thud. Seriously, even if you don't speak German, try sounding it out; it's fun to read aloud.
Oh, and it's short, which I generally appreciate in poetry, but even more so when I'm trying to read in a language that I don't understand that well.
All of which is to say that this was the first bit of German text that I was able to engage with as literature, which is why it's still my favorite.
I'd like to find more German poetry that I can engage with in this way. What are some of your favorites?
Velocirooster adminensis :bc: /
npub1r3…04a09
2024-07-08 09:36:18
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2024-07-08 09:36:18Event JSON
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"content": "Question for German speakers. What's your favorite piece of German poetry?\n\nI have been not all that successfully trying to teach myself German and I found that I soon got bored with practice dialogue in language courses and reading the news on Deutsche Welle, so I sought out the kind of literature that got me excited about writing in the first place.\n\nI already loved Rilke in translation so I worked my way through several of the poems in Das Stunden-Buch, but I think my favorite is still the first poem I was able to read and understand in the original German: Weltende by Jakob van Hoddis. \n\nIt has everything I love about the written word: it's apocalyptic and grandiose with surrealistic imagery, but is also grounded in the mundane experience of being human, the tension between those two different tones being used to humorous effect, and the sound and rhythm of the words amplify the meaning and propel it along untill it crashes into its final image, which to my ear ar least, falls with sort of an intentional dull thud. Seriously, even if you don't speak German, try sounding it out; it's fun to read aloud.\n\nOh, and it's short, which I generally appreciate in poetry, but even more so when I'm trying to read in a language that I don't understand that well.\n\nAll of which is to say that this was the first bit of German text that I was able to engage with as literature, which is why it's still my favorite.\n\nI'd like to find more German poetry that I can engage with in this way. What are some of your favorites?",
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