Wednesday, January 24, 2007

From James Dickey, The Firebombing

James Dickey includes this epigraph with his powerhouse poem The Firbombing:

denke daran, dass nach den grossen Zestorungen
Jedermann beweisen wird, dass er unschuldig war

- Gunter Eich

my translation (my rendering of the rough translation from http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr, a tip of the hat to Altavista for the service):

It will be remembered, after the great Destruction
That everyone was innocent

Note: In the 2nd comment to this post "zweidinge" has provided a more precise translation (a tip of the hat - thanks!):

Remember, that after the great destruction
Everyone will attest, that he was innocent



Memory is an alchemist

Memory is coyote

GUNTER EICH was born in 1907. He served in the German army in the Second World War and was interned in an American prisoner of war camp. In 1953 he married the writer Ilse Aichinger. An outstanding poet and playwright for radio, he was awarded the Buchner Prize. He died in 1972. (from http://www.skoob.com/seriph/eich.html)

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interesting. Thanks!

10:21 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

thats a very inaccurate translation:

Remember, that after the great destruction
Everyone will attest, that he was innocent.

7:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

People should read this.

4:46 AM  

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