Georg Trakl (1887–1914)

Austrian poet Georg Trakl was trained as a pharmacist in Vienna where his friends helped him get his first poetry published. His service as a medical officer on the Eastern Front during WWI led to depression and attempted suicide. Trakl did succeed in ending his life with a cocaine overdose in November of 1914. Will Stone provides the translation. Stone holds a degree in Literary Translation from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, and has produced prose and poetry translations of the show more works of several writers.

Trakl is an impressionist poet and captures the world in symbolism, shades expressed in words, and disconnection. Much like an impressionist painter captures the world in light and colors while blurring the boundaries reality, Trakl accomplishes the same with words:

Black skies of metal
Crossing in the red storms at evening Hunger crazed crows drift
Over the parks mournful and pale.

He carries several themes through his work, most notably, Fall, Winter, and silence. In many poems, there is a youthful feeling balancing with the lateness of the year. Although he only served in the opening months of the First World War, there is a noticeable darkness in many of his works from this period. The horrors of the war are clearly evident. The earlier works are meant to be read and examined in much the same way one would experience a painting by Monet. A remarkable poetic experience. This is also a collection of poetry where one cannot overlook the translator. Stone's work is seamless and unnoticeable in the reading. He is able to preserve the poet's original intent. Masterfully done. show less

Georg Trakl is the greatest poet of the twentieth-century.

(Of all the translations I have read/perused of Trakl (which admittedly is not yet all of them), Alexander Stillmark's is the superior one.)

Om te lezen en te herlezen en nog meer te herlezen. Hermetisch maar oh zo compact: alles zit er in. Tweetalige editie met een boeiende inleiding en uitvoerige commentaren achterin.

Georg Trakl (1887-1914) es uno de los poetas más importantes del siglo XX. Por primera vez se presenta en España su obra completa en una edición muy cuidada, que además destaca por la calidad de su traducción, premiada por el Ministerio de Educación y Arte de Austria.