Bücher von David Harsent

A Broken Man in Flower presents new versions of work by one of the most significant Greek poets of the last century, translated by one of the UK's most renowned contemporary poets.The life of Yannis Ritsos was, to say the least, troubled. From an early age, he was dogged by the tuberculosis that killed his mother and brother. His father and sister suffered breakdowns and spent time in institutions. His poem Epitaphios (1936), a lament for a young man shot dead by the police during a tobacco workers' strike, was publicly burned by the Metaxas regime and his books banned. Throughout his life he wa repeatedly persecuted, arrested and placed under house arrest by the oppressive Greek authorities.The violence and tyranny of dictatorship is often fractured by the surreal. In the poems collected here, written by Ritsos while in prison and under house arrest, that fracture in perception is a wound. A Broken Man in Flower has an introduction by John Kittmer and includes the text of an illuminating and vivid letter sent by Ritsos to his publisher in 1969 while under house arrest on Samos describing his life - and the lives of Greeks - under the repressive rule of the Colonels.Harsent's versions of Ritsos' poems express the revolutionary and experimental nature of his work while also remaining accurate translations from the Greek.

David Harsent zählt zu den angesehensten Dichtern in Großbritannien. Seine Werke haben viele Preise und Auszeichnungen erhalten ¿ darunter den T. S. Eliot Prize. Er hat zahlreiche Opernlibretti verfasst, die weltweit aufgeführt wurden. Songs from the Same Earth ist ein Gedichtzyklus über eine Frau in einer Krise ¿ am Rande des Zusammenbruchs. In blitzlichtartigen Episoden erleben wir die unsichere und bedrohliche Welt, die sie bewohnt. David Harsent schrieb dieses Werk als Auftragsarbeit ¿ zur Feier des hundertsten Geburtstags von Benjamin Britten und des zweihundertjährigen Jubiläums der Royal Philharmonic Society. Der Komponist Harrison Birtwistle vertonte die Gedichte. Dies ist David Harsents erstes Buch in deutscher Übersetzung.»Wahrscheinlich die reichste, verführerischste und zugleich rigoroseste Imagination, die in der englischen Dichtung heute am Werk ist.«