Unexpected Development
Will be published approx. on 19. April 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
140 pages
978-1-945680-14-4 (ISBN)
Description
Merz is keenly attentive to daily life as a revelator of essential
truths, and thus uses poetry as a way of returning closer to it; and
"to unbecome what was." Merz' "nearing" and "distancing" processes
take place inside us, through language. By summing up so gently and
exactly (but also sometimes drolly or pointedly) the movement of
duality, Merz enables us to sense more fully, time and again, what it
means to be alive: that "strange exhilaration within," as he puts it
in another of these splendid poems so vividly and resourcefully
translated by Marc Vincenz.
truths, and thus uses poetry as a way of returning closer to it; and
"to unbecome what was." Merz' "nearing" and "distancing" processes
take place inside us, through language. By summing up so gently and
exactly (but also sometimes drolly or pointedly) the movement of
duality, Merz enables us to sense more fully, time and again, what it
means to be alive: that "strange exhilaration within," as he puts it
in another of these splendid poems so vividly and resourcefully
translated by Marc Vincenz.
Reviews / Votes
"Merz's is a voice unfamiliar to English-language readers, but this collection should remedy that. His language is clipped and terse, dry, precise, sardonic even. A narrative pokes through and light comes in short bursts as Merz takes careful notes, thinking and feeling himself into his subject, shaping it as if from fragments. It all adds up to a strange exhilaration, curiously impersonal yet packed with personality. These poems, expertly Englished by master translator-poet Marc Vincenz, delight, engage and tease the mind."-Brian Swann
""Reading Klaus Merz' spare and illuminating poems is like entering Plato's cave and witnessing the light behind the shadows. As he writes in his poem, "Exchange Rate" "From the bright light/behind the apparition/ the poem recounts." What is recounted however, is often as disquieting as it is enlightening. His unblinking honesty and lyrical genius offer a kind of dark salvation, or a salvation in the sense Camus might have meant when he wrote: "If one could say just once: 'this is clear,' all would be saved." Merz is like a diamond cutter-he writes of the inevitable and the ineffable with incisive, shimmering clarity."
-Nin Andrews
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Buffalo
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 175 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
Weight
159 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-945680-14-4 (9781945680144)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Klaus Merz was born in 1945 in Aarau and lives in Unterkulm, Switzerland. He has won many literary awards including the Hermann Hesse Prize for Literature, the Swiss Schiller Foundation Poetry Prize, the Friedrich Hoelderlin Prize in 2012 and the Rainer-Malkowski-Preis in 2016. He has published over 35 works of poetry and fiction. His latest novel is The Argentinian (Der Argentine, Haymon, 2009) and his recent collections of verse are Out of the Dust (Aus dem Staub, Haymon, 2010), Unexpected Development (Unerwarteter Verlauf, Haymon, 2013) and Helios' Haulage (Helios Transport, Haymon 2016). Innsbruck's Haymon Verlag has published his collected works in seven volumes (2352 pages), featuring all his work in poetry and prose (collected and uncollected) from 1963 through 2014. Merzluft (Breathing Merz), a feature-length documentary by Heinz Buetler about Klaus Merz and his work was released in 2015.
Born in Hong Kong, Marc Vincenz is British-Swiss and is the author of ten books of poetry; his latest are Becoming the Sound of Bees (Ampersand Books, 2015), Sibylline (Ampersand Books, 2016) and The Syndicate of Water & Light (Station Hill, 2018). His novella, Three Taos of T'ao, or How to Catch a White Elephant is to be released by Spuyten Duyvil in 2017. He is the translator of many German- French- and Romanian-language poets. His translation work has received fellowships and grants from the Swiss Arts Council and the Literary Colloquium Berlin. His own recent publications, include The Nation, Ploughshares, The Common, Solstice, Raritan, Notre Dame Review and World Literature Today. He is International Editor of Plume, publisher of MadHat Press and Plume Editions, and lives and writes in Western Massachusetts.
Born in Hong Kong, Marc Vincenz is British-Swiss and is the author of ten books of poetry; his latest are Becoming the Sound of Bees (Ampersand Books, 2015), Sibylline (Ampersand Books, 2016) and The Syndicate of Water & Light (Station Hill, 2018). His novella, Three Taos of T'ao, or How to Catch a White Elephant is to be released by Spuyten Duyvil in 2017. He is the translator of many German- French- and Romanian-language poets. His translation work has received fellowships and grants from the Swiss Arts Council and the Literary Colloquium Berlin. His own recent publications, include The Nation, Ploughshares, The Common, Solstice, Raritan, Notre Dame Review and World Literature Today. He is International Editor of Plume, publisher of MadHat Press and Plume Editions, and lives and writes in Western Massachusetts.
Content
Introduction
I Aus der Forschung
Research Shows
Im rueckwaertigen Raum
In the Backward Chamber
Regelwerk
Regulations
Pilotprojekt
Pilot Project
Aus der Forschung
Research Shows
Kerngeschaeft
Core Business
Kurswechsel
Currency Exchange
Wechselkurs
Exchange Rate
Varia
Miscellany
Dann geriet er ...
Then he fell ...
Passiver Widerstand
Passive Resistance
Beglaubigung
Attestation
II Gang um den Felsen
Jaunt Around the Cliff Face
Durchs Tal der hundert Taeler
Through the Valley of a Hundred Valleys
Zum Rosengarten
Into the Rose Garden
Erbgang
Hereditary Stroll
Passau
Passau
Am Mondsee
At Mondsee
Im Zug der Zeit
In the Course of Time
Hotel Tirol
Hotel Tirol
Borderline
Borderline
Universitaet
University
Nichts geht ...
Nothing transcends
Auf einen bemalten Ofen
On the Painted Stove
Nach Homer
After Homer
Ariadnes Schwester
Adrianes' Sister
Hoher Wellengang
High Swell
Gang um den Felsen
Jaunt Around the Cliff Face
Still leben
Still Life
Letzter Wunsch
Last Wish
III Ein Zwischenspiel
An Interlude
Heisser Friede
Heated Satisfaction
IV Kostbarer Augenblick
A Precious Moment
Schauspiel
Drama
Im Wald ueben Tambouren ...
In the woods, tambourines ...
Was zu beweisen war
What Needed to Be Proven
Kostbarer Augenblick
A Precious Moment
Leichtes Spiel
Delicate Game
Auf nach Grinzing
Off to Grinzing (Austria)
Bonsai
Bonsai
Anfang November
November Begins
Liebesgedicht
Love Poem
Bibliothek
Library
Naechtliche Ernte
Nocturnal Harvest
Meisterkurs
Master Class
Spaziergang
Stroll
V Geglueckte Genesung
Successful Convalescence
Kreisverkehr
Rotary Traffic
Garderobe
Wardrobe
Treue Freunde, sage ich ...
Loyal friends, I say
Ahoi!
Yoo-hoo!
Neue Heimat
New Homeland
Ewiges Licht
Eternal Light
Geglueckte Genesung
Successful Convalescence
Er blieb den Tagen ...
Deliberately, he stayed the course ...
Wir legten eine irdene Taube ...
We placed an earthenware dove ...
I Aus der Forschung
Research Shows
Im rueckwaertigen Raum
In the Backward Chamber
Regelwerk
Regulations
Pilotprojekt
Pilot Project
Aus der Forschung
Research Shows
Kerngeschaeft
Core Business
Kurswechsel
Currency Exchange
Wechselkurs
Exchange Rate
Varia
Miscellany
Dann geriet er ...
Then he fell ...
Passiver Widerstand
Passive Resistance
Beglaubigung
Attestation
II Gang um den Felsen
Jaunt Around the Cliff Face
Durchs Tal der hundert Taeler
Through the Valley of a Hundred Valleys
Zum Rosengarten
Into the Rose Garden
Erbgang
Hereditary Stroll
Passau
Passau
Am Mondsee
At Mondsee
Im Zug der Zeit
In the Course of Time
Hotel Tirol
Hotel Tirol
Borderline
Borderline
Universitaet
University
Nichts geht ...
Nothing transcends
Auf einen bemalten Ofen
On the Painted Stove
Nach Homer
After Homer
Ariadnes Schwester
Adrianes' Sister
Hoher Wellengang
High Swell
Gang um den Felsen
Jaunt Around the Cliff Face
Still leben
Still Life
Letzter Wunsch
Last Wish
III Ein Zwischenspiel
An Interlude
Heisser Friede
Heated Satisfaction
IV Kostbarer Augenblick
A Precious Moment
Schauspiel
Drama
Im Wald ueben Tambouren ...
In the woods, tambourines ...
Was zu beweisen war
What Needed to Be Proven
Kostbarer Augenblick
A Precious Moment
Leichtes Spiel
Delicate Game
Auf nach Grinzing
Off to Grinzing (Austria)
Bonsai
Bonsai
Anfang November
November Begins
Liebesgedicht
Love Poem
Bibliothek
Library
Naechtliche Ernte
Nocturnal Harvest
Meisterkurs
Master Class
Spaziergang
Stroll
V Geglueckte Genesung
Successful Convalescence
Kreisverkehr
Rotary Traffic
Garderobe
Wardrobe
Treue Freunde, sage ich ...
Loyal friends, I say
Ahoi!
Yoo-hoo!
Neue Heimat
New Homeland
Ewiges Licht
Eternal Light
Geglueckte Genesung
Successful Convalescence
Er blieb den Tagen ...
Deliberately, he stayed the course ...
Wir legten eine irdene Taube ...
We placed an earthenware dove ...