“I've forgotten what a poemis – or worse can only remember", confessed the German-English poet Michael Hofmann (born 1957 in Freiburg) in 2005, before he fell silent. Between 1983 and 1999 he published four volumes of poetry. During this time he wrote what were perhaps the most beautiful father poems alongside those of Hugo Williams. (Hofmann is the son of the German writer Gert Hofmann.) With Feineinstellungen (DuMont 2001) a generous selection of his work appeared in a German translation by Marcel Beyer. Now, after a silence of almost two decades, there are new poems in One Lark, One Horse (Faber & Faber 2018). The texts – like those of the admired poet Robert Lowell – are written close to his own biography: a self-portrait of the poet in his middle years.
On this evening, Beyer, Wagner and Hofmann - three friends, three poets and three translators – will meet. Hofmann himself has translated Franz Kafka, Joseph Roth and Wolfgang Koeppen, among others, into English.
Just for this event Marcel Beyer and Jan Wagner will translate the same texts from One Lark, One Horse. They will present the results, compare the translations and discuss the different approaches with Michael Hofmann.
Tickets are €6/€4.