Love Poems

Erich Fried

Translated by Stuart Hood

ONEWORLDCLASSICS

oneworld classics ltdLondon House243-253 Lower Mortlake RoadRichmondSurrey TW9 2LLUnited Kingdomwww.oneworldclassics.com

Love Poems first published in Great Britain by John Calder (Publishers) Ltd in 1991This new, revised edition first published by Oneworld Classics Ltd in 2011

A selection from two volumes entitled Liebesgedichte and Es ist was es ist originally published in German by Verlag Klaus Wagenbach

© Erich Fried Estate, 1991, 1999, 2011© Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, 1979 and 1983Translation © Stuart Hood, 1991, 2011Cover image © Corbis Images

Printed in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe

isbn: 978-1-84749-196-1

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other-wise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be resold, lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the express prior consent of the publisher.

Contents

introduction xi

Part i 3

Was es ist 4What It Is 5

Fragen und Antworten 6Questions and Answers 7

Eine Kleinigkeit 10A Trifle 11

Schmutzkonkurrenz am Morgen 12Morning Mudslinging 13

Nach dem Erwachen 14On Waking Up 15

Nur nicht 16Better Not 17

Aber 18But 19

Zum Beispiel 20For Example 21

In einem anderen Land 22In Another Land 23

Erwartung 26Expectation 27

Einer ohne Schwefelhölzer 28A Man without Matches 29

Nachtgedicht 30Night Poem 31

Ein Fußfall 32A Case of Homage to a Foot 33

Nachtlied 34Night Song 35

Was? 36What? 37

Kein Stillleben 38Not a Still Life 39

love Poems

Erotik 40Erotic 41

Scham 42Shame 43

Das richtige Wort 44The Right Word 45

Verantwortungslos 46Irresponsible 47

Dich 48You 49

Zwischenfall 52Something Odd 53

Ungeplant 54Unplanned 55

Altersunterschied 56Difference in Age 57

Was war das? 58What Was That? 59

Erleichterung 60Relief 61

Erschwerung 62Complication 63

Trennung 64Separation 65

Eine Art Liebesgedicht 66A Sort of Love Poem 67

Erwägung 68Reflection 69

Nähe 70Nearness 71

Wintergarten 72Winter Garden 73

Nachhall 74Echo 75

Was weh tut 76What Hurts 77

Antwort auf einen Brief 78Answer to a Letter 79

Achtundzwanzig Fragen 80Twenty-Eight Questions 81

An Dich denken 82Thinking of You 83

Freiraum 84

contents

Breathing Space 85Luftpostbrief 86

Airmail Letter 87Kein Brief nach Spanien 88

Not a Letter to Spain 89In der Zeit bis zum 4. Juli 1978 90

Leading up to the 4th of July 1978 91Rückfahrt nach Bremen 92

On the Way Back to Bremen 93Der Weg zu Dir 94

The Road to You 95Auf der Fahrt fort von dir 96

On the Journey away from You 97Triptychon 98

Triptych 99Vielleicht 102

Perhaps 103In der Ferne 104

In the Distance 105Ich träume 106

I Dream 107Meine Wahl 108

My Choice 109Notwendige Fragen 110

Necessary Questions 111Herbst 112

Autumn 113Eifriger Trost 114

Eager Comfort 115Dich 116

You 117Ungewiss 118

Uncertain 119Die Vorwürfe 120

Reproaches 121Zuflucht 122

Refuge 123Vorübungen für ein Wunder 124

Warming up for a Miracle 125Strauch mit herzförmigen Blättern 126

Bush with Heart-Shaped Leaves 127In Gedanken 128

In Thought 129

love Poems

Ich 130I 131

Tränencouvade 132Couvade for Tears 133

Diese Leere 134This Void 135

Die guten Gärtner 138The Good Gardeners 139

Tagtraum 140Daydream 141

Ohne dich 142Without You 143

Dann 144Then 145

Warum 146Why 147

Später Gedanke 148Late Thought 149

Traum 150Dream 151

Das Schwere 152Difficult 153

Wartenacht 154Night of Waiting 155

Das Herz in Wirklichkeit 156The Heart in Reality 157

Part i i 159

Gegengewicht 160Counterpoise 161

In dieser Zeit 162In This Time 163

Die Liebe und wir 164Love and Us 165

Was ist Leben? 166What Is Life? 167

Ein linkes Liebesgedicht? 168A Left-Wing Love Poem? 169

Durcheinander 170Confusion 171

Liebe bekennen 172

contents

To Make Love Known 173Reden 174

Speeches 175Grenze der Verzweiflung 176

Edge of Despair 177Hölderlin an Susette Gontard 178

Hölderlin to Susette Gontard 179Du 182

You 183Karl Marx 1983 184

Karl Marx 1983 185Parteinahme 186

Taking Sides 187Kinder und Linke 190

Children and the Left 191Regelbestätigungen 192

Proving the Rule 193Lebensaufgabe 194

A Life’s Task 195Die Feinde 196

The Enemies 197Warnung vor Zugeständnissen 198

Warning about Concessions 199Gespräch mit einem Überlebenden 200

Conversation with a Survivor 201Dankesschuld 202

Debt of Gratitude 203Die Lezten werden die Ersten sein 204

The Last Shall Be First 205Sühne 206

Atonement 207Dialog in hundert Jahren mit Fußnote 208

Dialogue a Century from Now with Footnote 209Das Ärgernis 210

The Offence 211Deutsche Worte vom Meer 212

German Words about the Sea 213Realitätsprinzip 214

Reality Principle 215Glücksspiel 216

Game of Chance 217

love Poems

Part i i i 219

Schwache Stunde 220Time of Weakness 221

Lob der Verzweiflung 222Praise of Despair 223

Versuch sich anzupassen 224Attempt to Conform 225

Sterbensworte Don Quixotes 226Don Quixote’s Last Words 227

Als kein Ausweg zu sehen war 228When No Solution Was in Sight 229

Wo immer gelöscht wird 230Wherever Something Is Quenched 231

Die Stille 234Silence 235

Bereitsein war alles 236Readiness Was All 237

Verhalten 238Stance 239

Ausgleichende Gerechtigkeit 240Even-Handed Justice 241

Diagnose 242Diagnosis 243

Die Bulldozer 244The Bulldozers 245

Eine Stunde 246An Hour 247

Entenende 250The End of the Ducks 251

Ça ira? 252Ça ira? 253

Zukunft? 254Future? 255

Es gab Menschen 256There Were People 257

Was der Wald sah 260What the Wood Saw 261

Fabeln 264Fables 265

Homeros Eros 266Homeros Eros 267

contents

Bedingung 268Conditional 269

Der einzige Ausweg 270The Only Way Out 271

Heilig-Nüchtern 272Soberly-Holy 273

Ungewiß 274Uncertain 275

Macht der Dichtung 276The Power of Poetry 277

Gedichte lesen 278Reading Poems 279

Die Einschränkung 280The Reservation 281

Nacht in London 282Night in London 283

Es dämmert 284It Grows Dark 285

Eigene Beobachtung 286Personal Observations 287

Der Vorwurf 288The Reproach 289

Ei ei 290Aye Aye 291

Abschied 294Farewell 295

Altersschwäche? 296Weakness of Old Age? 297

Zuspruch 298Encouragement 299

Aber vielleicht 300But Maybe 301

Alter 302Age 303

Zu guter Letzt 304At the Very End 305

Vielleicht 306Perhaps 307

Grabschrift 308Epitaph 309

index of f irst lines 310

xi

Introduction

On repatriation leave in the autumn of 1944 I came across a col-lection of German poems by writers in exile. Among largely unfa-miliar names there was that of Erich Fried who had contributed two poems. One was called ‘Gottes Mühlen mahlen am Lethe’ (‘God’s Mills Grind on Lethe’). In nightmarish and prophetic terms, soon to be terribly confirmed in photographs of the great charnel pits of Belsen and the other camps, it described the trail of death the war and tyranny were spreading over Europe. Struck by the power of Fried’s images, I translated the poem which began:

A corpse-fed river full in spate Flows in my dreams throughout the night.

It was published – so to speak – by being put up on the walls of the Left Book Club rooms in Edinburgh.

Erich Fried and I were not to meet until 1946. It was in London, in Bush House, where we were both employed in the BBC’s German Service. In the depressing subterranean canteen where the voices booming over the Tannoy were reputed to have inspired Orwell’s Big Brother I got to know this young man with his uneasy gait, his slightly pudgy sensitive hands, his fine head with its mass of dark hair, his extraordinary voice; learnt to know his quixotic, indomitable spirit, his courage, mischievous humour and deep seriousness. We discussed poetry, in which we shared certain tastes, and politics, in which we shared the experience of being disillusioned Communists who were still determined not to abandon the humanist and utopian aims of socialism. It was a friendship that was to last for forty years until his death.

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love Poems

To be close to Erich – which was not always easy for those near-est to him – was to see functioning a human being of apparently inexhaustible energies and inventiveness. His creative powers rested on his ability to reach down into the deepest recesses of his psyche, to confront what he discovered there and to endure the most profound and painful emotions. But he also had a capacity to recognize the absurd sides of our human natures, the quirks of behaviour in himself and others. One of his own eccentricities was his love of rummaging in skips to rescue what was still usable and for collecting junk on one pretext or another: an activity which he correctly defended as a protest against consumerism and as what now would be called a “green” attitude to our sum of natural resources. It also had roots in the poverty he had experienced as a young exile who stole lead piping to raise money to get other refugees to safety. Many of his objets trouvés decorated his study where there was gathered – along with a barely controlled confu-sion of books, files, manuscripts – an extraordinary collection of things beautiful, strange and curious: they included (as one of his poems testifies) his mother’s ashes. His typewriter, which functioned by means of an ingenious arrangement of weights and counterbalances, bore witness to his technical inventiveness, which he applied in the painstaking repair of domestic appliances and had earlier used in Vienna to invent electrical patents. The room, in short, was a reflection of the diversity of his talents, of the quirkiness and originality of his mind.

In the post-war years, although he decided against living in either Germany or his native Austria, his reputation grew there as a poet, writer and translator. His oeuvre included radio plays, the libretto for an opera (the music by Alexander Goehr), a remarkable and disturbing novel, short prose pieces, works of criticism. To these must be added translations – notably of T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, E.E. Cummings and of Shakespeare, the latter in a version that, in its accuracy and vigour, in its actability, challenged the famous Schlegel-Tieck edition. (To his great sat-isfaction he completed King Lear before his death.) But above all

xiii

introduction

there were the poems. He once said in typically self-mocking way that he produced poems in the same way as rabbits have babies. The writing of poetry was, he believed, an activity which one had to pursue like any other craft, experimenting, perfecting skills, practising with language. At the height of his creative powers there can hardly have been a day that passed without his writing not one but several poems. Certain days – or nights – produced whole sequences.

Some of his critics have seen in this facility a weakness and undoubtedly there were poems in his prodigious output which were five-finger exercises, technical experiments, the polish-ing of writing skills; others were ephemeral because of their topicality. But the critics were also making a political point; he reacted too easily, they argued, to events of the day, to politi-cal happenings in Germany, the Middle East or Vietnam. His poems, they objected, were the reflex reactions of a tender conscience. Poetry should be more aloof from politics. This was to misunderstand the nature of Fried’s political commitment. Never narrowly defined in terms of party loyalty, it expressed his resolution to fight tyranny, the abuse of power, doctrinaire stances, hypocrisy, wherever they appeared. His critics similarly misunderstood his commitment to use in that fight the weapons of language, of wit, of irony and invective; all his skills as a writer. He believed that he had to follow a categorical imperative: to be both politically engaged and poetically creative. Indeed he was unable to see how it is possible to unravel emotional commitments from political ones or to split these off in turn from the business of writing. On the political level his success was demonstrated by the way in which lines and formulations from his poetry were taken up by the German student movement and, more generally, by the extraordinary reach of his published works. The Liebesgedichte, from which many of the poems in this volume come, was first published in 1979. When the 1987 edition appeared the print run was from 166 to 173,000. Even when they were ephemeral his poems were the utterances of a

xiv

love Poems

voice which in the Sixties and later was listened to with respect by audiences in Germany.

One important reason for his success was that he spoke, as few others were able to speak, to that generation whose parents had lived as adults through the Thirties and the war – who had therefore been in one way or another involved in the life and politics of the Third Reich. Fried was a member of that same generation as their parents, an anti-Fascist, a man of the Left, a Jew who had lost many of his family at the hands of the Nazis. What set him apart and gave his words a particular resonance was that he was prepared to speak about politics of the past and the present with indignation but also with a humanity which saw even men and women perverted by evil to be themselves the victims of tyranny. He understood the questionings and dissat-isfactions of the post-war generations, their need to look at the past and to discuss it without the use of mere slogans. He also understood the impatience and frustrations which led to terror-ism, which he condemned just as he condemned the inhumanity and repressive excesses of the German state apparatus. But he was also not afraid to express deep human emotions, to describe the difficulties and rewards of “love relationships” into which he entered with openness and a commitment which the younger generation could recognize and which was undiminished by age. His voice fell silent before the events of 1989 and the breaking of the Wall. In the political events that followed it was a voice that was deeply missed.

What was remarkable about him was his political honesty and his courage to confront both those who were his opponents on the Right and those on the Left to whom he extended an often critical solidarity. His refusal to be silenced brought him into the courts in Germany, where he was acquitted, and into public confrontations in which his tenacity and power of argument wrung apologies from members of the German Establishment. His condemnation of Zionism and of the policies of the State of Israel together with his championing of the Palestinian cause brought down on him

xv

introduction

the threats and crude abuse of Zionists. In Germany politicians of the Right called for his works to be burnt. On the Left his friends at times found him excessively tolerant of political enemies; but it was his firm conviction that one may – indeed must – attack one’s opponent’s ideas relentlessly, but that the opponent as a human being deserves to be treated with respect. It was an attitude which extended to ex-Nazis and neo-Nazis. It was a political tactic which some found rested too much on the idea of individual salvation, on the conviction that all human beings, can one but find the way to address them, are open to reason.

This remarkable man bore the stamp of a rich and intricate cultural heritage. Growing up in Vienna between the wars, he was educated in a humanist classical tradition that went back to the Enlightenment. His knowledge of German literature and thought was extensive and deep. It naturally included the writ-ings of Marx. Although never a practising Jew he was conscious of belonging to the same Central European cultural tradition as produced many of the great thinkers and artists of the twentieth century. He also knew and delighted in the stories from the shtetls of Eastern Europe, about the doings, sayings and paradoxes of the wonder rabbis, which were one legacy of his Jewish origins. He was profoundly influenced by psychoanalytic theory, although he typically could not easily be classified in terms of any par-ticular school. He was marked by the political events in Austria from the suppression of the workers’ movements and the rise of Austro-Fascism to the Anschluss. In exile in London, he rejected Stalinism as he rejected Zionism. In his political thinking he was deeply influenced by the libertarian teachings of Marcuse and the utopianism of Ernst Bloch just as in his approach to human psychology he owed much to Ronald Laing and Margaret Miller.

These were some of the intellectual influences that went to shape him. But what obsessed him was an interest in language, and in particular the German language – for great as was his mastery of and knowledge of English (witness his translations), English always remained in a real sense a foreign language which he held

Love Poems

i

4

was es i st

Es ist Unsinn sagt die Vernunft Es ist was es ist sagt die Liebe

Es ist Unglück sagt die Berechnung Es ist nichts als Schmerz sagt die Angst Es ist aussichtslos sagt die Einsicht 10 Es ist was es ist sagt die Liebe

Es ist lächerlich sagt der Stolz Es ist leichtsinnig sagt die Vorsicht Es ist unmöglich sagt die Erfahrung Es ist was es ist sagt die Liebe 20

5

what it i s

It is madness says reason It is what it is says love

It is unhappiness says caution It is nothing but pain says fear It has no future says insight 10 It is what it is says love

It is ridiculous says pride It is foolish says caution It is impossible says experience It is what it is says love 20

6

fragen und antworten

Wo sie wohnt? Im Haus neben der Verzweiflung

Mit wem sie verwandt ist? Mit dem Tod und der Angst

Wohin sie gehen wird wenn sie geht? Niemand weiß das

Von wo sie gekommen ist? Von ganz nahe oder ganz weit

Wie lange sie bleiben wird? 10 Wenn du Glück hast solange du lebst

Was sie von dir verlangt? Nichts oder alles

Was soll das heißen? Dass das ein und dasselbe ist

Was gibt sie dir – oder auch mir – dafür? Genau soviel wie sie nimmt Sie behält nichts zurück 20

Hält sie dich – oder mich – gefangen oder gibt sie uns frei? Es kann uns geschehen dass sie uns die Freiheit schenkt

7

Questions and answers

Where does it live? In the house next to despair

Who are its kin? Death and fear

Where will it go when it does go? No one knows

Where does it come from? From very near or very far

How long will it stay? 10 If you’re lucky as long as you live

What does it ask for you? Nothing or everything

What does that mean? That it’s one and the same

What does it give you – or me – in return? Exactly what it takes It keeps back nothing 20

Does it keep you – or me – prisoner or does it set us free? It can happen to us that it gives us freedom

8

Frei sein von ihr ist das gut oder schlecht? Es ist das Ärgste was uns zustoßen kann

Was ist sie eigentlich 30 und wie kann man sie definieren? Es heißt dass Gott gesagt hat dass er sie ist

9

To be free of it is that good or bad? It is the worst that can befall us

What is it really 30 and how can one define it? They say that God said he is it

10

eine KleinigKeit

für Catherine

Ich weiß nicht was Liebe ist aber vielleicht ist es etwas wie das:

Wenn sie nach Hause kommt aus dem Ausland und stolz zu mir sagt: „Ich habe eine Wasserratte gesehen“ und ich erinnere mich an diese Worte wenn ich aufwache in der Nacht und am nächsten Tag bei der Arbeit 10 und ich sehne mich danach sie dieselben Worte noch einmal sagen zu hören und auch danach dass sie nochmals genau so aussehen soll wie sie aussah als sie sagte –

Ich denke, das ist vielleicht Liebe oder doch etwas hinreichend Ähnliches

11

a trifle

for Catherine

I don’t know what love is but perhaps it is something like this:

When she come home from abroad and tells me proudly: “I saw a water rat” and I remember these words when I wake up in the night and next day at my work 10 and I long to hear her say the same words once more and for her to look exactly the same as she looked when she said them –

I think that is maybe love or something rather like it

12

schmutzKonKurrenz am morgen

für Catherine

Als ich Liebe vorschlug lehntest du ab und erklärtest mir: „Ich habe eben einen liebenswürdigen Mann kennengelernt im Traum Er war blind und er war ein Deutscher Ist das nicht komisch?“ 10

Ich wünschte dir schöne Träume und ging hinunter an meinem Schreibtisch aber so eifersüchtig wie sonst kaum je

13

morning mudslinging

for Catherine

When I proposed love You declined And explained to me: “I just met a nice man in a dream He was blind And he was a German Isn’t that funny?” 10

I wished you sweet dreams And went down To my desk But jealous I was hardly ever before

14

nach dem erwachen

Catherine erinnert sich an etwas das sie an etwas erinnert doch zuerst weder was noch woran

Dann weiß sie es war ein Geruch und dann ein Geruch der sie 10 an Weihnachten erinnert aber kein Tannen- und Kerzengeruch und ganz gewiß auch kein Geruch nach Backwerk

Sondern was? Sondern Seifengeruch Der Geruch einer Flüssigkeit die sie und ihr Bruder bekamen zu Weihnachten 20 für ganz große Seifenblasen

Nun ist die Erinnerung wieder da ganz groß und ganz rund und spiegelt ihr Kindergesicht und schillert und dann zerplatzt sie

15

on waKing uP

Catherine remembers something that reminds her of something but at first not what or what of

Then she knows it was a smell and then a smell that 10 reminds her of Christmas but not the smell of pine and candles and certainly not of baking

But what? But the smell of a soap The smell of a liquid she and her brother got for Christmas 20 for great big soap bubbles

Now the memory is back very big and very round and mirrors her child’s face and is full of colours and then it bursts