Er is een – gratis te downloaden – boekje verschenen met vertalingen (naar het Engels) van twaalf gedichten van de Duits expressionistische dichter August Stramm (1874-1915). De gedichten komen uit ‘Tropfblut. Gedichte aus dem Krieg’ in August Stramm, Gedichte Dramen Prosa Briefe (Reclam, ed. Jörg Drews, 1997). Kort, claustrofobisch, opvallende beelden, afwijkende syntax.

Uit een begeleidend essay van de vertaler Alistair Noon:

Born in 1874, August Stramm was an idiosyncratic figure in German poetry. An
employee of the Berlin post office whose first major piece of writing was a doctoral
thesis on the introduction of worldwide postal charges, he came to literature
relatively late in life. [...]

Both his significance in the canon and his biography
are summed up in a poem by Ernst Jandl, which begins: ‘he august stramm /
abridged very / the german poem // him august stramm / the first world war /
abridged …’

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Evening
Tiredness stitches.
Dullness dims.
Prayers press down.
The wounding sun
caresses you.

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