Lièwesschprooch Dichtung: Langue d'amour—Poésie (1940-2008) by Claude Vigée

Abstract

EUROPEAN WAYNE MILLER, and KEVIN PRJJFER. Ni Dhomhnaill are presented along side those who use a more literal, colloquial language, likeRomania's Simona Popescu or Ukrainian poet Yuri Andrukhovych (seeWLT, Sep tember 2005, 24-32). The length of individual poems tends toward longer rather than shorter, and poetic influences are eclectic, rang ing from surrealism and dadaism to Russian acmeism and American confessionalism. What is equally striking is the breadth of historical engagement in many of the poems. The Finnish poet Martin Enckell offers a haunt ing hymn to the romantic, tragic history of the city of St. Petersburg ("in thiscityof the mothers, and the sphinxes, / lifewrites its shadow script, as in fever/'), and the Norwe gian poet 0ystein Wingaard Wolf presents a potent poem-memoir of a Jewish soap-maker who "became a small pile of soap and ashes / that theNazis wanted towash Europe with." Notable too is the frequency with which a playfully ironic or irreverent tone dominates the selec tions. Polish poet Ewa Sonnenberg What isequally striking isthe breadth of historical engagement in many of the poems. The Finnish poet Martin Enckelloffers a haunting hymnto the romantic,tragic history of thecity of St. Petersburgand the Norwegian poet 0ysteinWingaard Wolf presents a potent poem memoir of a Jewish soap-maker. wryly addresses the poem as if it were a person ("My funny little poem I'llwarm you inmy hands / we'll tell life we're sorry for writing not living"). The German poet Ulla Hahn delivers a witty send-up in sonnet form of both the lover and theact of love-making: "Rub ringsof sunshine intobelly's shell / so that thewarmth remains. / Then keep my eyelids open,my lips aswell." In theirintroduction,theeditors explain thatone of theirreasons for bringing together thepoems in this anthology was that the cultural and historical evolution of Europe dur ing the past few decades resulted in thewriting of "radically differ ent" poetry, creating theneed foran update. They also express concern that current American readers of = poetry and American poets them- = selves may have become less inter- = ested in European poetry in recent = years. Ifthat is true, it is all the more = reason forus tobe grateful thatwe = have been given access to an assem- = blage of contemporary European = verse that is uniformly vibrant and = well translated. = Rita Signorelli-Pappas = Princeton, New Jersey = Claude Vigee. Liewesschprooch E Dichtung: Langue d'amour?Poesie E (1940-2008). Bischwiller, France. 1 L'Associationdes Amis du Musee de la E Laub. 2008. 184 pages. 20. isbn 978- 1 2-9512380-8-4| "A language can only be pro- E nounced dead when no breath of E poetry strives to awaken it from a E prolonged coma, bestowing on it E with devotion, talent, and love, a E saving kiss of life/'Claude Vigee E writes about his endangered native E tongue,Alsatian, in the introduction E tohis newest book of poetry. Vigee E isa prolific, well-known French poet E who was awarded theGrand Prix E de Poesie de la Societe des Gens de E Lettres in 1987 and theGrand Prix E de Poesie de l'Academie Francaise in E 1997,amongmany otherdistinctions. E Today at eighty-seven,Vigee has had E a remarkable career spanning some = sixty years, with over fiftypoetry E collections inFrench, and important E French translationsofRilke and T. S. E Eliot. Translations of his works into E English include the recentChants de E Yabsence/Songs of Absence, translated E byAnthony Rudolf (2007), and Flow E Tide: SelectedPoetry and Prose, edited E and translated by Anthony Rudolf, E with additional translationsbyWillis E Barnstone (1992). Liewesschprooch, the E Alsatian word for"language of love," E isClaude Vigee's first book ofpoetry E _March-April 2009 i75 I > ^1 I H I ? I I "I written inwhat are in facthis two endangered mother tongues, Alsa tian (Els?ssisch) and Judeo-Alsatian (Eiss?ser-Jiddische L?sche). These languages, of Alemannic-German provenance, have been spoken for centuries in Alsace, a region in east ern France, but are facing extinction. Judeo-Alsatian is now spoken only by a few elders: l?ngschtvergesseni schtemme, "long forgotten voices." It is a revitalizing forcewhen a great poet likeVigee publishes works in these...