Requiem for Ernst Jandl

Friederike Mayröcker

Translated by Rosalyn Theobald

Forthcoming

 

5 x 8.5 inches, 96pp. April 2018

ISBN : 9780857424754

Rs  499.00 (HB)
$15.00 (HB)
£7.99 (HB)

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Austrian poet and playwright Ernst Jandl died in 2000, leaving behind his partner, poet Friederike Mayröcker—and bringing to an end a half century of shared life, and shared literary work.

 

Mayröcker immediately began attempting to come to terms with his death in the way that poets struggling with loss have done for millennia: by writing. Requiem for Ernst Jandl is the powerfully moving outcome. In this quiet but passionate lament that grows into a song of enthralling intensity, Mayröcker recalls memories and shared experiences, and—with the sudden, piercing perception of regrets that often accompany grief—reads Jandl’s works in a new light. Alarmed by a sudden, existential emptiness, she reflects on the future, and the possibility of going on with her life and work in the absence of the person who, as we see in this elegy, was a constant conversational and creative partner.

Friederike Mayröcker has, since 1956, published poetry, prose, stage plays, radio plays and children's books, and has been honoured with numerous literary prizes.

 

Rosalyn Theobald has translated Mayröcker's brütt, or The Sighing Gardens, as well as works by Barbara König, Botho Strauss, Melitta Breznik, Lisa Fittko and Richard Glazar.

Poetry
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