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Love Poems

Erich FriedTranslated by Stuart Hood

ONEWORLD

CLASSICS

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London House243-253 Lower Mortlake RoadRichmondSurrey TW9 2LLUnited Kingdom

www.oneworldclassics.com

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

A selection from two volumes entitled Liebesgedichteand Es ist was esistoriginally 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

: 978-1-84749-196-1

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

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Contents

xi

Was es ist

What It Is Fragen und Antworten Questions and Answers

Eine Kleinigkeit A Trifle

Schmutzkonkurrenz am Morgen Morning Mudslinging

Nach dem Erwachen On Waking Up

Nur nicht Better Not

Aber But

Zum Beispiel For Example

In einem anderen Land In Another Land

Erwartung Expectation

Einer ohne Schwefelhlzer A Man without Matches

Nachtgedicht Night Poem

Ein Fufall A Case of Homage to a Foot

Nachtlied

Night Song Was? What?

Kein Stillleben Not a Still Life

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Erotik Erotic

Scham

Shame Das richtige Wort

The Right Word Verantwortungslos

Irresponsible Dich

You Zwischenfall

Something Odd Ungeplant

Unplanned Altersunterschied

Difference in Age Was war das?

What Was That? Erleichterung

Relief

Erschwerung Complication Trennung

Separation Eine Art Liebesgedicht

A Sort of Love Poem Erwgung

Reflection Nhe

Nearness Wintergarten

Winter Garden Nachhall

Echo Was weh tut

What Hurts Antwort auf einen Brief

Answer to a Letter Achtundzwanzig Fragen Twenty-Eight Questions

An Dich denken Thinking of You

Freiraum

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Breathing Space Luftpostbrief

Airmail Letter

Kein Brief nach Spanien Not a Letter to Spain

In der Zeit bis zum 4. Juli 1978 Leading up to the 4th of July 1978

Rckfahrt nach Bremen On the Way Back to Bremen

Der Weg zu Dir The Road to You

Auf der Fahrt fort von dir On the Journey away from You

Triptychon Triptych

Vielleicht Perhaps

In der Ferne In the Distance

Ich trume

I Dream Meine Wahl My Choice

Notwendige Fragen Necessary Questions

Herbst Autumn

Eifriger Trost Eager Comfort

Dich You

Ungewiss Uncertain

Die Vorwrfe Reproaches

Zuflucht Refuge

Vorbungen fr ein Wunder Warming up for a Miracle Strauch mit herzfrmigen Blttern

Bush with Heart-Shaped Leaves In Gedanken

In Thought

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Ich I

Trnencouvade

Couvade for Tears Diese Leere

This Void Die guten Grtner

The Good Gardeners Tagtraum

Daydream Ohne dich

Without You Dann

Then Warum

Why Spter Gedanke

Late Thought Traum

Dream

Das Schwere Difficult Wartenacht

Night of Waiting Das Herz in Wirklichkeit

The Heart in Reality

Gegengewicht Counterpoise

In dieser Zeit In This Time

Die Liebe und wir Love and Us

Was ist Leben? What Is Life?

Ein linkes Liebesgedicht? A Left-Wing Love Poem?

Durcheinander Confusion

Liebe bekennen

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To Make Love Known Reden

Speeches

Grenze der Verzweiflung Edge of Despair

Hlderlin an Susette Gontard Hlderlin to Susette Gontard

Du You

Karl Marx 1983 Karl Marx 1983

Parteinahme Taking Sides

Kinder und Linke Children and the Left

Regelbesttigungen Proving the Rule

Lebensaufgabe A Lifes Task

Die Feinde

The Enemies Warnung vor Zugestndnissen Warning about Concessions

Gesprch mit einem berlebenden Conversation with a Survivor

Dankesschuld Debt of Gratitude

Die Lezten werden die Ersten sein The Last Shall Be First

Shne Atonement

Dialog in hundert Jahren mit Funote Dialogue a Century from Now with Footnote

Das rgernis The Offence

Deutsche Worte vom Meer German Words about the Sea

Realittsprinzip Reality Principle Glcksspiel

Game of Chance

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Schwache Stunde Time of Weakness

Lob der Verzweiflung Praise of Despair

Versuch sich anzupassen Attempt to Conform

Sterbensworte Don Quixotes Don Quixotes Last Words

Als kein Ausweg zu sehen war

When No Solution Was in Sight Wo immer gelscht wird Wherever Something Is Quenched

Die Stille Silence

Bereitsein war alles Readiness Was All

Verhalten Stance

Ausgleichende Gerechtigkeit Even-Handed Justice

Diagnose Diagnosis

Die Bulldozer The Bulldozers

Eine Stunde An Hour

Entenende The End of the Ducks

a ira? a ira?

Zukunft? Future?

Es gab Menschen There Were People

Was der Wald sah

What the Wood Saw Fabeln

Fables Homeros Eros

Homeros Eros

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Bedingung Conditional

Der einzige Ausweg

The Only Way Out Heilig-Nchtern

Soberly-Holy Ungewi

Uncertain Macht der Dichtung

The Power of Poetry Gedichte lesen

Reading Poems Die Einschrnkung

The Reservation Nacht in London

Night in London Es dmmert

It Grows Dark Eigene Beobachtung

Personal Observations

Der Vorwurf The Reproach Ei ei

Aye Aye Abschied

Farewell Altersschwche?

Weakness of Old Age? Zuspruch

Encouragement Aber vielleicht

But Maybe Alter

Age Zu guter Letzt

At the Very End Vielleicht

Perhaps Grabschrift Epitaph

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xi

Introduction

On repatriation leave in the autumn of 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 contributedtwo poems. One was called Gottes Mhlen mahlen am Lethe(Gods Mills Grind on Lethe). In nightmarish and prophetic

terms, soon to be terribly confirmed in photographs of the greatcharnel 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 Frieds images, I translated the poem which began:

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

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

Erich Fried and I were not to meet until . It was in London,

in Bush House, where we were both employed in the BBCsGerman Service. In the depressing subterranean canteen wherethe voices booming over the Tannoy were reputed to have inspired

Orwells 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 hisquixotic, indomitable spirit, his courage, mischievous humourand deep seriousness. We discussed poetry, in which we sharedcertain tastes, and politics, in which we shared the experience ofbeing disillusioned Communists who were still determined notto 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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xii

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 powersrested on his ability to reach down into the deepest recesses of his

psyche, to confront what he discovered there and to endure themost profound and painful emotions. But he also had a capacityto 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 whichhe correctly defended as a protest against consumerism and aswhat now would be called a green attitude to our sum of natural

resources. It also had roots in the poverty he had experienced asa young exile who stole lead piping to raise money to get otherrefugees to safety. Many of his objets trouvsdecorated his study

where there was gathered along with a barely controlled confu-

sion of books, files, manuscripts an extraordinary collectionof things beautiful, strange and curious: they included (as oneof his poems testifies) his mothers ashes. His typewriter, whichfunctioned by means of an ingenious arrangement of weightsand 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, ofthe 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 thereas 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 ofcriticism. To these must be added translations notably of T.S.Eliot, Dylan Thomas, E.E. Cummings and of Shakespeare, thelatter 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 Learbefore his death.) But above all

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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 hadto pursue like any other craft, experimenting, perfecting skills,practising with language. At the height of his creative powersthere can hardly have been a day that passed without his writingnot one but several poems. Certain days or nights producedwhole sequences.

Some of his critics have seen in this facility a weakness and

undoubtedly there were poems in his prodigious output whichwere 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 wasto misunderstand the nature of Frieds 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 . When the

edition appeared the print run was from to ,. Even

when they were ephemeral his poems were the utterances of a

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xiv

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, asfew others were able to speak, to that generation whose parentshad lived as adults through the Thirties and the war who hadtherefore been in one way or another involved in the life and

politics of the Third Reich. Fried was a member of that samegeneration 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 resonancewas that he was prepared to speak about politics of the past andthe present with indignation but also with a humanity which

saw even men and women perverted by evil to be themselves thevictims of tyranny. He understood the questionings and dissat-isfactions of the post-war generations, their need to look at thepast 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 inhumanityand repressive excesses of the German state apparatus. But hewas also not afraid to express deep human emotions, to describethe difficulties and rewards of love relationships into which

he entered with openness and a commitment which the youngergeneration could recognize and which was undiminished by age.

His voice fell silent before the events of and the breaking ofthe Wall. In the political events that followed it was a voice thatwas deeply missed.

What was remarkable about him was his political honesty andhis 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 apologiesfrom 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

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xv

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 itwas his firm conviction that one may indeed must attack ones

opponents ideas relentlessly, but that the opponent as a humanbeing 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, hewas educated in a humanist classical tradition that went backto the Enlightenment. His knowledge of German literature andthought 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 asproduced many of the great thinkers and artists of the twentiethcentury. He also knew and delighted in the stories from the shtetls

of Eastern Europe, about the doings, sayings and paradoxes ofthe 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 Austriafrom the suppression of the workers movements and the rise ofAustro-Fascism to the Anschluss. In exile in London, he rejectedStalinism as he rejected Zionism. In his political thinking he wasdeeply influenced by the libertarian teachings of Marcuse andthe utopianism of Ernst Bloch just as in his approach to humanpsychology 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 inparticular the German language for great as was his masteryof and knowledge of English (witness his translations), Englishalways remained in a real sense a foreign language which he held

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Love Poems

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Es ist Unsinn

sagt die VernunftEs ist was es istsagt die Liebe

Es ist Unglcksagt die BerechnungEs ist nichts als Schmerzsagt die Angst

Es ist aussichtslossagt die Einsicht Es ist was es istsagt die Liebe

Es ist lcherlichsagt der StolzEs ist leichtsinnig

sagt die VorsichtEs ist unmglichsagt die ErfahrungEs ist was es istsagt die Liebe

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It is madness

says reasonIt is what it issays love

It is unhappinesssays cautionIt is nothing but painsays fear

It has no futuresays insight It is what it issays love

It is ridiculoussays prideIt is foolish

says cautionIt is impossiblesays experienceIt is what it issays love

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Wo sie wohnt?

Im Haus neben der Verzweiflung

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

Wohin sie gehen wirdwenn sie geht?

Niemand wei das

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

Wie lange sie bleiben wird? Wenn du Glck hast

solange du lebst

Was sie von dir verlangt?Nichts oder alles

Was soll das heien?Dass das ein und dasselbe ist

Was gibt sie dir oder auch mir dafr?Genau soviel wie sie nimmtSie behlt nichts zurck

Hlt sie dich oder mich gefangen

oder gibt sie uns frei?Es kann uns geschehendass sie uns die Freiheit schenkt

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Where does it live?

In the house next to despair

Who are its kin?Death and fear

Where will it gowhen it does go?

No one knows

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

How long will it stay? If youre lucky

as long as you live

What does it ask for you?Nothing or everything

What does that mean?That its one and the same

What does it give you or me in return?Exactly what it takesIt keeps back nothing

Does it keep you or me prisoner

or does it set us free?It can happen to usthat it gives us freedom

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Frei sein von ihrist das gut oder schlecht?Es ist das rgste

was uns zustoen kann

Was ist sie eigentlich und wie kann man sie definieren?Es heit dass Gott gesagt hatdass er sie ist

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To be free of itis that good or bad?It is the worst

that can befall us

What is it really and how can one define it?They say that God saidhe is it

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fr Catherine

Ich wei nicht was Liebe istaber vielleichtist es etwas wie das:

Wenn sienach Hause kommt aus dem Ausland

und stolz zu mir sagt: Ich habeeine Wasserratte gesehenund ich erinnere mich an diese Wortewenn ich aufwache in der Nachtund am nchsten Tag bei der Arbeit und ich sehne mich danachsie dieselben Wortenoch einmal sagen zu hren

und auch danachdass sie nochmals genau so aussehen sollwie sie aussahals sie sagte

Ich denke, das ist vielleicht Liebeoder doch etwas hinreichend hnliches

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for Catherine

I dont know what love isbut perhapsit is something like this:

When shecome home from abroad

and tells me proudly: I sawa water ratand I remember these wordswhen I wake up in the nightand next day at my work and I longto hear her saythe same words once more

and for herto look exactly the sameas she lookedwhen she said them

I think that is maybe loveor something rather like it

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fr Catherine

Als ich Liebe vorschluglehntest du abund erklrtest mir:Ich habe ebeneinen liebenswrdigen Mannkennengelernt

im TraumEr war blindund er war ein DeutscherIst das nicht komisch?

Ich wnschte dir schne Trumeund ging hinunteran meinem Schreibtisch

aber so eiferschtigwie sonst kaum je

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for Catherine

When I proposed loveYou declinedAnd explained to me:I justmeta nice man

in a dreamHe was blindAnd he was a GermanIsnt that funny?

I wished you sweet dreamsAnd went downTo my desk

But jealousI was hardly ever before

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Catherine erinnert sich

an etwas das siean etwas erinnertdoch zuerstweder wasnoch woran

Dann wei siees war ein Geruch

und dannein Geruch der sie an Weihnachten erinnertaberkein Tannen- und Kerzengeruchund ganz gewiauch kein Geruch nach Backwerk

Sondern was?Sondern SeifengeruchDer Geruch einer Flssigkeitdie sie und ihr Bruderbekamen zu Weihnachten fr ganz groe Seifenblasen

Nun ist die Erinnerungwieder daganz ground ganz rundund spiegelt ihr Kindergesichtund schillertund dann zerplatzt sie

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Catherine remembers

somethingthat reminds her of somethingbut at firstnot whator what of

Then she knowsit was a smell

and thena smell that reminds her of Christmasbutnot the smell of pine and candlesand certainlynot of baking

But what?But the smell of a soapThe smell of a liquidshe and her brothergot for Christmas for great big soap bubbles

Now the memoryis backvery bigand very roundand mirrors her childs faceand is full of coloursand then it bursts