This Translation Tuesday, we bring to you two poems by the German writer Katrine von Hutten, including her poem “Description”, which won the Leonce and Lena Prize in 1969. In an elegant and plain style rendered by translator Cristina M. Burack, these two poems convey the simplicity and mystery of approaching another person through one’s private vocabulary.
Description
gladly would I write two three
sentences that look like you
that are as you are
at best I can describe you
you are a wolf
in wolf’s clothing
and a sheep
in sheep’s clothing
but you know that
the circles under my eyes look like you too
when you jump through I have to laugh
you often say whoopsie
even when you don’t say it
better to say: you mean it
it is only half past six
but already wholly dark
you’re like that too
That’s what I like to hear
the nonsensical certainty
that you mean when you say
oh nothing
not the weighty seriousness
that unburdens itself by posing as nothing
rather the light chatter
that the lips are too smart for
that’s what I like to hear
it comes from you
more from your feet for instance
your own feet
than that said by the head
that you hold high
i call it as i do every head
a nest of all kinds of
thoughts of strangers
Translated from the German by Cristina M. Burack
Katrine von Hutten was born in 1944 in Lohr am Main, in Bavaria, Germany. She studied German linguistics and philosophy in Heidelberg, design in Darmstadt and later completed a masters in translation theory at New York University, where she lived and worked as a translator for numerous years. In the late sixties, she worked as an editor for the literary magazine Lyrische Hefte. Her own writing includes multiple volumes of poems, short stories and an autobiographical essay collection. Hutten received the Leonce and Lena Prize for her poem “Beschreibung” (“Description”) in 1969, among other prizes. After suffering from multiple sclerosis for many years, she died in Frankfurt in 2013.
Cristina M. Burack is based in Bonn, Germany, where she works as a writer, editor and translator of German into English. Her translated literary work has previously appeared in No Man’s Land and The Common. She holds bachelors’ degrees in European History and Voice and Opera Performance, with a special focus on German Lieder, as well as a masters in European Studies.
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