White Picture - Softcover

Orten, Jiri

4.43

7 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1461169119 ISBN 13: 9781461169116

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

1 Used

From US$ 22.91

0 New

Jiri Orten was one of the great poets of the 20th century. A Czech Jew who narrowly avoided being sent to a concentration camp, Orten was hit by a speeding German car in Nazi-occupied Prague in 1941. He was refused admission to a nearby hospital and died shortly afterwards (at the age of 22) in a “Jewish Hospital” which was basically a warehouse. "Jiri Orten is a powerful, visionary poet whose work has been beautifully translated by Lyn Coffin. These are poems we can return to again and again—for their courage, for their sustenance." - Sam Hamill "Lyn Coffin's translations do justice to a great poet. I can think of no higher praise for a translation than that." - Joseph Brodsky (about Lyn's translations of Orten's Elegies) "I can now die a happy man.... These are the poems my brother would have written if he'd written in English." - Ota Ornest, Jiri Orten's brother ... How dark it is outside! What was I going to say? Oh, yes, now I remember. Because of all those hours I slept soundly through calm nights, because of all those loved ones who are deep in dreams-- Now, when everything's running short, I can't stand being here by myself. The lamplight's too strong. I am sowing grain on the headland. I will not live long.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.