Antología poética

by Gottfried Benn, Arturo Parada (Editor)

Genres: Poetry, German Literature

307 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Gottfried Benn was a German essayist, novelist and expressionist poet. A doctor of medicine, he became an early admirer, and later a critic, of the National Socialist revolution. Benn had a literary influence on German verse immediately before and after the NS regime.

Reviews

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 4 out of 5]

"... die Betrachtungen von fünfhundert Seiten über Wahrheit, so treffend einige Seiten sein mögen, werden von einem dreistrophigen Gedicht - dies leise Erdbeben fühlen die Philosophen, aber das Verhältnis zum Wort ist bei ihnen, aber das Verhältnis zum Wort ist bei ihnen gestört ode nie lebendig gewesen, darum wurden sie Philosophen, aber im Grunde möchte sie dichten - alles möchte dichten."

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of Benn’s poetry is entirely in German. I only took two years of German, so I was largely unable to read the poems. However, this book was indispensable for the introduction and extensive notes, all of which were all in English. Indeed, only 60 pages of this book were Benn’s poems in German. The other 170 pages were all scholarly material, mostly in English (except where Benn’s writing was quoted).

The introduction provided a robust reading of Benn’s life and work. I used the notes while reading English translations from another book. The notes describe the background of each poem and position them in relation to Benn’s life and career. They also provide a gloss and analysis of certain words and phrase, as well as give some of Benn’s more obscure references. Since I was reading Benn’s poems in translation from another book (a side-by-side dual language text), I had this book open next to me so that I could get insight into certain poems. It was an essential resource for me in understanding Benn.

[Juan Medina · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Un azul que calla, que puede callar:
empapa la luz;
un azul que no puede ceder,
soporta ejércitos, soporta
ruinas de dioses y reinos
dispuestos en torno a este mar.

Intuición
mediterránea del discurrir del mundo."
GB