The Trace They Wished to Leave

Contact: Tel: 020 7420 9887, poetrycafe@poetrysociety.org.uk

Judy Gahagan presents: Peter Huchel (1903-81) and Reiner Kunze (1933-): these two poets of eastern Germany belong among the many that had to create some domain for poetry within the constraints of totalitarian regimes and while surviving the apocalyptic events of mid-20th century Germany. In varying degrees they adopted the famous strategy of ‘inner emigration’. The poems tonight will illustrate that ‘emigration’ inwards of Peter Huchel, native of Brandenburg and Reiner Kunze – native of Saxony.

Judy Gahagan is a member of the Camden Mews Translation Workshop. She has published 5 collections of her own poetry and a collection of short stories as well as a verse-history of Ludwig II of Bavaria ‘Tours Around the Soul of Ludwig’. She is a tutor at the Poetry School London and for various other writing groups; and she runs courses in eco-poetry. Her work was included in ‘Over the Water’, a collection of translated poems from the Camden Mews group.

Ruth Ingram presents: Hans Sahl (1909 -1993)

Hans Sahl was born in Dresden into a wealthy Jewish family. He became a respected Theatre and Film Critic in Berlin. As a Jew and a socialist he was an immediate target for the Nazi regime. He escaped to Prague, then to Switzerland, and finally to Paris. He was interned by the French authorities at the outbreak of war together with many other Jewish refugees. When France was invaded he escaped again to Vichy, and from there finally to the States. His poetry mirrors the fate of many politically active Jewish writers.

Ruth Ingram is a member of the Camden Mews Translators and the Highgate Poets. Her translated poems have been published by Hearing Eye, and the literary journal ‘Modern Poetry in Translation’. Her first book of translated poetry ‘In Exile’ was published in February 2011 featuring three German Jewish poets: Hans Sahl, Mascha Kaléko and Hilde Domin.

Price: £5.00 / £3.00

Time: 8:00pm