(The poems collected in this bilingual volume represent th...)
The poems collected in this bilingual volume represent the full range of Lasker-Schüler’s work. Haxton’s translation embraces the poems’ lyrical imagery, remaining faithful to the poet’s vision while also capturing the cadence and rhythms of the poetry.
(Ranked among Deutsche Welle's '100 German Must-Reads in E...)
Ranked among Deutsche Welle's '100 German Must-Reads in English Translation', 15 October 2018. 'I am wildly in love with someone, but I'll say no more about it. That way it could always be .. you.' Set around the Café des Westens, the epicenter of early twentieth century Expressionist Berlin, Else Lasker-Schüler chronicles the demise of her marriage in a series of letters to her husband Herwarth Walden, publisher of the avant-garde journal Der Sturm.
Else Lasker-Schüler was a German poet, a well-known figure in German literary circles and in the bohemia of Berlin, and a dedicated proponent of German expressionism.
Background
Else Lasker-Schüler was born on February 11, 1869, in Wuppertal, Elberfeld, Germany. She was the youngest of six children, three girls, and three boys. Her father Aron Schüler was a banker, and her mother Jeanette Kissing Schüler devoted much time to literature. Else was the granddaughter of a rabbi, although her family was not especially religious. Of all her siblings, she was closest to her brother Paul, who was seven years her elder. He wrote poetry in Greek and Latin, and she adored him.
Education
Whether because of the illness or for other reasons, she was unable to attend school, and instead received lessons from private tutors and her brother Paul, who died prematurely at age twenty.
Career
In 1933, Lasker-Schueler fled Germany for Switzerland to escape the Nazis who had risen to power. She was unable to work there, however, further damaging her financial situation, and had to continually reapply for residence permits. She made a trip to Palestine in 1934 and was invited again in 1937 to give readings there. In 1939, she returned again, but the outbreak of World War II prevented her return to Switzerland. She settled in a hotel room in Jerusalem, that she could not even afford to heat; meanwhile, her mental and spiritual health had begun to deteriorate, with friends noticing the onset of paranoid tendencies. Eventually, her physical health followed suit, and she died in 1945 in Jerusalem. Lasker-Schueler continued writing throughout these personal trials, transforming them in many cases into the raw material of her art.
The play Die Wupper premiered in April 1919 in Berlin; the first production received a mixed response, but the second production in 1927 was an unqualified success, with leading critics praising the play’s combination of realistic and magical features. Indicative of changing times, the play caused a scandal in 1958 when it was mounted in Cologne; the Catholic Archdiocese condemned it, and performances were disrupted by protest. This first play is acknowledged to be Lasker-Schueler’s best. Her second play was less successful, and, in its first staging in Zurich in 1936, was performed only twice. In 1968-69 it was revived successfully however and went on tour. Lasker-Schueler’s final play, called Iandl: A Theatrical Tragedy in Six Acts, a Prelude, and an Epilogue, was written while she was living in Jerusalem. After Lasker- Schueler read the play publicly in 1941, it more or less disappeared: her literary executor felt that it was too flawed and would damage her reputation. Nonetheless, it was finally published in 1970 and was performed successfully in 1979. Given that art and" life was intertwined throughout her career, it is fitting that Lasker- Schueler’s last work was a volume of elegiac poetry, My Blue Piano, published in 1943.
Else Lasker-Schüler is known for her Bohemian lifestyle in Berlin. Known primarily for her poetry, Lasker-Schueler also wrote prose and drama. Her drama is particularly intriguing, not least because it is generally overlooked. Recognized by many as the finest lyrical voice of 20th-century Germany, she had instilled a poetry into her native language that few possessed and had then been prevented from living in her native land.
In 1932, Else Lasker-Schüler was aged 63 when she received the Kleist Preis, one of Germany's highest literary honors.
There is a memorial plaque to Else Lasker-Schüler at Motzstraße 7, Berlin-Schöneberg, where she lived from 1924 to 1933. Part of this street was renamed Else-Lasker-Schüler-Straße in 1996. In Elberfeld in Wuppertal there is now a school named after her (The "School without Racism"), and a memorial stele was erected on Herzogstraße, Wuppertal.
In Jerusalem, there is a small street named for Else Lasker-Schüler in the neighborhood of Nayot - Rehov Else. Perched on a ridge in the Jerusalem Forest, very close to the Kennedy Memorial (Yad Kennedy), was a sculpture in her honor resembling a slender tree trunk with wings. It was placed there in 1997, and was stolen, probably by metal thieves, in July 2007.
Quotations:
"I am homesick for our garden and tower. What does the world want from me?"
Personality
Else Lasker-Schueler’s life had no shortage of travail, though, with her propensity for making art out of her personal trauma, it is difficult to say where these travails end and her artistic persona begins. In 1890 her mother died, deeply affecting Else; she had identified strongly with both her mother’s artistic bent and with her melancholy.
Driven to exile in Jerusalem, she was deprived there of hearing or speaking the language she cared about most. Provided with a pension adequate for her needs, she continually gave most of it away and spent her final years in an unheated furnished room, sleeping in an easy chair because she did not own a bed and did not want one. Prone since youth to a Bohemian lifestyle, she spent her days sitting in cafes and her nights at the movies, still occasionally writing poetry, still appreciated by the other writers and artists in exile like herself, but growing increasingly eccentric in her behavior and her dress. Exiled in both language and land, she felt nowhere at home.
Lasker-Schüler loved many men. In 1912, she fell in love with the poet Gottfried Benn, who held her in great regard throughout his life. She also met Georg Trakl and later wrote two poems about their brief friendship. She had a longer association with the Viennese critic and satirist Karl Kraus, who recognized the greatness of her poetry and published some of it in his periodical, Die Fackel. When Lasker-Schüler had financial difficulties in 1913, Kraus published an appeal for contributions on her behalf. Throughout this period of poverty, prolific publishing, and intense relationships, she remained devoted to her son. Paulchen, as she called him, was bright and creative, and no matter how erratic her lifestyle, he remained at the center of her life. Part of her deprivations resulted from the expenses of sending him to a good boarding school.
Connections
Else married Dr. Jonathan Berthold Lasker in 1894. Lasker was a physician in Berlin, and his brother was a world famous chess champion. However, Dr. Lasker was not the father of her child. Apparently, she had an ongoing liaison during her marriage with Peter Hille, a poet who introduced her to Berlin’s artistic community. She divorced Lasker in 1903, and remarried in the same year, to Georg Levin, a composer and writer who worked under the pseudonym Herwarth Walden. That marriage lasted until 1912, though the couple separated by 1910. Her failed relationships left her with numerous financial difficulties, which were exacerbated when her son, always sickly, contracted tuberculosis following World War I. She paid for him to be treated in a Swiss sanitarium, further draining her resources, and eventually she cared for him herself. He died in 1927.
