The Night Begins with a Question
25 Austrian Poems

Many of the poets who spring to mind when we think of German poetry in English translation are Austrians - at least 'by formation'. This work collects work by several of these, placing them in the company of some of their Austrian contemporaries, all of whom deserve to be better known in English than they are.

But when Franz-Josef Murau, hero of Thomas Bernhard's novel "Die Ausloschung (Extinction)", expresses his love for Ingeborg Bachmann's great poem "Bohmen liegt am Meer" (which opens this collection), he calls it "so Austrian, but at the same time so permeated by the whole world, and by the world surrounding this world". Something similar might be said of each of poems in this compact and vital selection. This is the latest addition to the "European Originals" series which has previously showcased Scottish, Finnish and Hungarian poetry.