Ich roch Hyänenbrunft in den Bars.
Ich traf in den Kneipen Schakale.
Ich hörte den Brüllaffenschrei auf den Rängen.
Geier sah ich, die Drähte zerrissen,
Skorpione, die sich füllten mit farbigem Gift.
Ich sah Leguane in den Anlagen wüten,
Heuschreckenschwärme ihr Blut
einem lüsternen Himmel aufdrängen;
doch ich sah keinen Menschen.
*
Eine Staubwolke kam,
eine rote;
lastend,
ein Dunstleib,
sank sie herab.
Die U-Bahn blieb stecken,
der Bus drückte die Wand ein,
es war Mittag, und war
eine rötliche Nacht.
Und roch nach Leder,
nach Steppe und Tierschweiß.
Frauen fielen in Krämpfe der Wollust;
Kinder erstarrten im Spiel;
und es regnete Sand.
*
(Dezember)
Die Beinkirche, Winter, sie ist
mit gläsernen Dolchen geschmückt,
und das Kreuz, an dem der Erfrorene hängt,
gleißt in kristallenem Glast.
Komme, Gebieter des lautlosen Todes und lies
die Frostmesse uns;
es ist Zeit zu erstarren.
aus Kassiber
Wolfdietrich Schnurre
Listen to an excerpt of the original German read by the translator:
Wolfdietrich Schnurre’s collection of poems Kassiber (Prison Slips) first appeared with Suhrkamp Verlag in 1957. Dotted throughout were eight poems all bearing the title “Kassiber,” meaning a secret message sent by prisoners to other prisoners, or to the outside world. In the 1964 edition Kassiber / Neue Gedichte (Prison Slips / New Poems; Suhrkamp), Schnurre removed the second and third “Kassiber” poems and retitled the eighth as “Dezember” (December). In his collected poems from 1979, Kassiber und Neue Gedichte (Prison Slips and New Poems; Paul List Verlag), he restored the third poem, retained the eighth as “Dezember, and added a ninth “Kassiber” poem in the section “Neue Gedichte 1965–1979” (New Poems 1965–1979).
The changes to the “Kassiber” poems constitute a particularly visible instance of themes of guilt and reflection on Germany in the Second World War in Schnurre’s work, the wavering textual history materially representing his struggle to find trust even in his own words. I wanted to present the strain of thought worked through in the “Kassiber” poems over many decades as an uninterrupted sequence: from oppressively apocalyptic images to moments of defiance and clarity. It should be noted, however, that Schnurre never presented them as a contiguous sequence; they were always scattered throughout his collections, separated by varying quantities of other poems, and united only at a distance by their shared title.
This publication includes the second, fifth, and eighth “Kassiber” poems.
The changes to the “Kassiber” poems constitute a particularly visible instance of themes of guilt and reflection on Germany in the Second World War in Schnurre’s work, the wavering textual history materially representing his struggle to find trust even in his own words. I wanted to present the strain of thought worked through in the “Kassiber” poems over many decades as an uninterrupted sequence: from oppressively apocalyptic images to moments of defiance and clarity. It should be noted, however, that Schnurre never presented them as a contiguous sequence; they were always scattered throughout his collections, separated by varying quantities of other poems, and united only at a distance by their shared title.
This publication includes the second, fifth, and eighth “Kassiber” poems.
Wolfdietrich Schnurre (1920–1989) was a post-war German writer, known as a member of Gruppe 47 (Group 47), for which his 1948 story “Das Begräbnis” (The Funeral; Ja. Zeitung der jungen Generation, 1948) was a founding text. He was drafted into the German army during the Second World War and was later imprisoned for attempted desertion. After the war he wrote criticism, short stories, poems, and novels. His book of poems Kassiber (Prison Slips; Suhrkamp Verlag) was first published in 1957. He is known also for the hybrid autobiographical novels Als Vaters Bart noch rot war (When Father’s Beard was still red; Verlag Die Arche, 1958), and Der Schattenfotograf (The Shadow Photographer; Paul List Verlag, 1978). He received the Georg Büchner Prize in 1983.
Chris Holdaway (1989–) is a poet, publisher, and translator from Aotearoa, New Zealand. He is the author of Gorse Poems (Titus Books, 2022) and directs the literary arts publisher Compound Press. He studied poetry and translation at the University of Notre Dame, and translates poetry into English from French, German, and Spanish. More at chrisholdaway.com
