First English edition | |
| Author | Hermann Hesse |
|---|---|
| Original title | Die Gedichte |
| Translator | James Wright |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German |
| Subject | Poetry |
| Published | 1953 (Suhrkamp Verlag) |
Published in English | 1970 |
| Media type | |
Poems is a collection of 31 poems written by the German author Hermann Hesse between 1899 and 1921. They were selected and translated to English by James Wright in 1970 from Die Gedichte, which was published in German in 1953. This collection was first published in 1971.
Each translated poem in this volume appears alongside the original German text. The poems, and the year they were written, are:
Hermann Hesse is best known for his novels, but he was also a poet. In the seven volume German edition of his works, there are some 480 pages of poems. Hesse's novels themselves contain many passages of literal verse.
The common thread that runs through the poems in this collection is homesickness. On the selection of these poems, James Wright wrote in the Translator's Note: "All I wish to do is to offer a selection of Hesse's poems which deal with the single theme of homesickness." Many of Hesse's novels touched on this subject, including Steppenwolf (1927):
In these poems Hesse has touched this theme with a "traditionally endearing delicacy."
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