foudebassan (foudebassan) wrote in gedichte, @ 2008-04-24 23:56:00 |
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Entry tags: | expressionismus, lasker-schueler |
Else Lasker-Schüler
(1867-1945)
Else Schüler was something of a child prodigy. She went to high school and finished her education with a private tutor at home. Her favourite brother died when she was 13, her mother when she was 23. She married a doctor Lasker shortly after that and they moved to Berlin where she started drawing and published her first poems (mostly erotica). Her son was born in 1899.
The marriage ended, but she kept her ex's name - perhaps because it makes the beginning of a trochaic verse? She remarried, to Georg Lewin (for whom she invented the nom de plume Herwath Walden), published poems that starred Biblical characters, and divorced again. She met Gottfried Benn in 1912 and they were to remain friends until her death. Today's poem was written partly about him (though they never were in a romantic relationship)
Her second divorce had left her penniless and she had to rely on the generosity of her friends, many of whom died during WW1. Her son died too, in 1927, of tuberculosis. Despite all of those mishaps, or maybe because of them, she turned to more experimental forms of poetry.
As she was Jewish she was forced into exile in 1933. She fled to Switzerland, where she was forbidden to work. She took great interest in the Zionist movement and travelled three times to Palestine, where she found herself in 1939. She was unable to come back due to the war and died in Jerusalem in 1945 after a long illness.
I probably should have chosen one of her more famous poems for today - Ein alter Tibetteppich, Mein blaues Klavier, Mein Volk,... there are many many fine pieces to chose from. But you know me, when there's erotica in the air that's where I turn to. So I give you:
Höre! Ich raube in den Nächten Die Rosen deines Mundes, Daß keine Weibin Trinken findet. Die dich umarmt, Stiehlt mir von meinen Schauern, Die ich um deine Glieder malte. Ich bin dein Wegrand. Die dich streift, Stürzt ab. Fühlst du mein Lebtum Überall Wie ferner Saum? |
Hear ! I steal in the nights The roses of your mouth, So that no woman (1) finds to drink. She who embraces you Robs me of my shivers That I painted around your limbs. I am the wayside (2) That grazes you, Crashes down. Do you feel my liveness (3) Everywhere Like a fringe far away? |