Darkness Spoken: The Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann (German Edition) [Paperback]

Ingeborg Bachmann (Author), Peter Filkins (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2005

Darkness Spoken gathers together Ingeborg Bachmann’s two celebrated books of poetry, as well as early and late poems not collected in book form, over 100 of them appearing in English for the first time, as well as 25 poems never before published in German. Bachmann is considered one of the most important poets to emerge in postwar German letters, and this volume represents the largest collection available in English translation. Influencing numerous writers from Thomas Bernhard to Christa Wolf to Elfriede Jelinek (winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature), Bachmann’s poetic investigation into the nature and limits of language in the face of historical violence remains unmatched in its ability to combine philosophical insight with haunting lyricism.

Bachmann was born in 1926 in Klagenfurt, Austria. She studied philosophy at the universities of Innsbruck, Graz, and Vienna. In 1953 she received the poetry prize from Gruppe 47 for her first volume, Borrowed Time (Die gestundete Zeit). Her second collection, Invocation of the Great Bear (Anrufung des großen Bären), appeared in 1956. Her various awards include the Georg Büchner Prize, the Berlin Critics Prize, the Bremen Award, and the Austrian State Prize for Literature. Writing and publishing essays, opera libretti, short stories, and novels as well, she divided her time between Munich, Zurich, Berlin, and Rome, where she died from a fire in her apartment in 1973.

Peter Filkins has published two volumes of poetry, What She Knew (1998) and After Homer (2002), and has translated Bachmann’s The Book of Franza and Requiem for Fanny Goldmann. He is the recipient of an Outstanding Translation Award from the American Literary Translators Association and the Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin. He teaches at Simon’s Rock College of Bard in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A contemporary of Paul Celan, born in 1926, in 1953 received the poetry prize from Grupe 47. Her other awards include the Georg Buchner prize, the Berlin Critics Prize, the Bremen Award, and the Austrian State Prize for Literature. Filkins is a poet whose poems, translations, and reviews have appeared in such places as Agni, The American Poetry Review, and The Harvard Review. He teaches at the Bard College at Simon's Rock.

Product Details

• Paperback: 688 pages
• Publisher: Zephyr Press; Bilingual edition (October 1, 2005)
• Language: German
• ISBN-10: 0939010844
• ISBN-13: 978-0939010844
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,167,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A haunting exploration of consciousness and language, September 12, 2007

By 

A reader (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Darkness Spoken: The Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann (German Edition) (Paperback)

Darkness Spoken: The Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann

The hauntingly beautiful poems in this volume give expression to a deep and often brooding poetic consciousness which is one and the same as language. Set free--the word is not casually chosen--language reconfigures itself in an act of renewal, achieving a new vitality. Thus, ultimately, no matter how somber they may be, in their very existence, the poems strike a note of historic victory over all of those forces of darkenss that surround the poet.

"Libraries," a poem from 1945 - 1956, is revealing of the quality and historic importance of the poems:

"The shelves sag./The volumes are weighted down with the past./ Their sweat is dust./ The impulse is rigidity./ They no longer sturggle./ They have saved themselves/upon the island of knowledge./Soometimes they've lost their conscience./Here and there, protruding/from them, human fingers/point directly towards life/or twards heaven.

Clearly, language is mired in the past, is petrified, no longer engaged in any vitality-giving struggle, and no longer engaged in acts of conscience. The final four lines are mysterious; but one possibility is that even within this stagnant heap of language, encouraging human signs are to be found. These, surely, are the inspiration for Ingeborg Bachmann's poetry, here collected.

This reviewer is in no position to comapare Filkins' translations with the original German texts that accompany them. In their own right, at the very least, they are pleasant enough. However, they should really serve as a crutch for the naive German reader to enter the original texts. With just a little preparation in the pronunciation of German the translations help to open up the richness of the original language.

Ingeborg Bachmann's poetry is not well enough appreciated in the USA, though she may be the foremost German language writer of the post war period. This collection should prove her value. The poetry is not easy, but it is fascinating and reawarding to read.

Darkness Spoken: The Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the All-Time Greats, June 28, 2011

By 

Elijah Joon "Author and Independent Film Prod... - See all my reviews

This review is from: Darkness Spoken: The Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann (German Edition) (Paperback)

Ingeborg Bachmann is one of the all-time greats and finest poets to ever live to write in any language, period.
Her sadness and extreme range of emotions comes through beautifully in the English translation by Peter Filkins in this comprehensive collection of her poetry. Her body of work can sit comfortably (and deservedly) on the same shelf with Emily Dickinson, Anne Sexton, and Sylvia Plath in quality, power, and influence.
This excellent book is a must-read for Ingeborg fans and for poetry lovers in general.
This one is definitely Hall-of-Fame and All-Time Great material, folks.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Darth Mother, December 3, 2009

By 

Yoga S. Great "Yoga maven" (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Darkness Spoken: The Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann (German Edition) (Paperback)

Ingeborg Bachmann was one of the best German speaking poets. The comparison with Sylvia Plath is not unjustified, as reading this collection of poems will show.

Bachmann is a versatile writer, very much in command of style and diction. Her business is not only personal; her writing has a strong political and social perspective as well, and is therefore not locked in time.

I recommend to stay away from reading Bachmann right before going to sleep at night.