I still haven't been to the Buchmesse, but I might go to the London Book Fair.

Popular posts from this blog

Looking back on my first year as an author/translator in Britain

 I still haven't posted anything here this year, it's April already and possibly a bit late to look back on 2022, the first whole year I've spent as an author/translator in Britain. But I feel like doing it now, and with the time that has passed some things may appear clearer, not only to myself, but also to anyone who is reading this blog. I came to London in the midst of the pandemic and with two small books for translation in my suitcase, the poetry collection Λοιπόν; ( So? ) by Yiannis Ritsos, 1978, and the essay collection Oeffentlichkeit als Partner ( The public as partner )   by Max Frisch, 1967. I've translated the first one into English (and German). I'm still looking for a publisher. Prototype have recently published another Ritsos collection, this may be a sign that the time is ripe for some kind of a Ritsos revival. He is a poet who was most popular at the high time of the (now traditional) New Left. Since then his work has been sparsely published in Eur
Read more

Leaving Graecogermania

  "Die 'Universitaeten' als 'Staetten der wissenschaftlichen Forschung und Lehre' (solcher Art sind sie Gebilde des 19. Jahrhunderts) werden zu reinen und immer 'wirklichkeitsnaeheren' Betriebsanstalten, in denen nichts zur Entscheidung kommt. Den letzten Rest einer Kulturdekoration werden sie nur so lange behalten, als sie vorerst noch zugleich Mittel zur 'kulturpolitischen' Propaganda bleiben muessen." (Martin Heidegger, Beitraege zur Philosophie, c. 1937) It's already November and I haven't posted anything here since June. There was no interesting event I've been to and of which I could have given an account. After last year's disappointment (see April post) I didn't feel like attending Translation Day, all the more, since there hasn't been any notable sign of interest in my work as a translator into English for the last two years, i.e. since I arrived in the UK. This concerns mainly my translation of Yiannis Ritsos,
Read more

Goetz, Meyer, Schroeder: A fragmentary tale from the German literary scene (Part 3)

 Schroeder and Gilbner are sitting in a bobo cafe on the Lister Meile sipping on two big latte macchiatos. (Later, Schroeder will take a stroll, find a record shop and purchase an old Tocotronic CD.) Gilbner likes Schroeder, who is able to cite Marcuse and refer to repressive entsublimierung . He is surprised that such a relatively young person seems to have the same revolutionary spirit that dominated his own youth.  They talk about the novel, and after five minutes Gilbner says Wir machen das Buch . Schroeder has that strange feeling of mixed emotions that sets in when a goal is achieved in a way that wasn't forseeable. Another thing is, he doesn't quite know what to make of Gilbner who owns a farm in Dithmarschen where he conducts obscure workshops and teaches Alexander Lowen's bioenergetics. (A few years later Schroeder will hear that Gilbner is suspected of trying to merge eco radicalism with neo-nationalist thinking.) But this is what he wanted, after all. His book to
Read more