The Man Outside (1947)

Borchert's language has a very special rhythm. ( )

I bough this in a bookshop in Aberystwyth in 2006 or 2007 but it took me back to my early days of studying German at a school in the 1960s. Borchert and Boll were two of the authors we studied. The short stories and plays of Borchert and his early death were memorable. Only later did I begin to understand their real significance.

An excellent small theater piece and some short stories Borchert wrote in the two years he had before dying in Basel and after returning from war. The play relates how a man coming back from war is knocking at different doors at his home town ---Hamburg--- in a desperate trial to rebuild his life. One after the other, all these doors are closed for him. Somewhere between this world and madness our man keep on finding an ungrateful society. On the other hand tales as "Nacht schlafen die Ratten schon " are just brilliant. Borchert was probably the best discovery of 2007.

La biografía de Borchert es estremecedora. Cuando terminó la guerra, se arrastró casi literalmente de vuelta a Hamburgo, donde supo que le quedaba un tiempo ínfimo por vivir. Esta pieza de teatro, cuyo título yo habría traducido al castellano como "Fuera, en la puerta", no es sino una metáfora de todas las puertas, que la Alemania en ruinas que dejó la barbarie, cerraba sistemáticamente al perderdor, al perdido. Los relatos, manifiestos, ensayos mínimos que suelen acompañar a la obra son magistrales. Minimalistas e imprescindibles. Borchert, mi mejor descubrimiento del año pasado. ( )