Cyrano or Returning from the Moon
What is going on? The Americans are abandoning the moon, leaving the earth’s seemingly dead companion to stragglers. Time to recapitulate: On a Sunday afternoon in Berlin, on the airfield of the disused Tempelhof Airport, poet Durs Grünbein makes a momentuous observation.
What if humanity only ever wanted to return from its adventures in space exploration? Yesterday it was the moon, tomorrow it’s Mars and then …? That’s when he encounters Cyrano de...What is going on? The Americans are abandoning the moon, leaving the earth’s seemingly dead companion to stragglers. Time to recapitulate: On a Sunday afternoon in Berlin, on the airfield of the disused Tempelhof Airport, poet Durs Grünbein makes a momentuous observation.
What if humanity only ever wanted to return from its adventures in space exploration? Yesterday it was the moon, tomorrow it’s Mars and then …? That’s when he encounters Cyrano de Bergerac, the scornful traveller through imaginary planetary realms, a contemporary of René Descartes. He calls to him across the centuries: There is but one sensation – returning home, everything else is an illusion! And suddenly all the floodgates open into space and time and a celebration of being-here begins. Out there the inhospitableness and the craters (named after the heroes of science, the pioneers of space travel) – and down here the fragile elegies of a species that is beginning to realise that it is all alone in the space.
Durs Grünbein has written a new cycle of poems that takes as a starting point longing, the failed efforts at gathering knowledge of a culture of enlightenment that has remained Romantic at its core and that wants nothing but find back to itself, to gaze at the moon as though it was still there.
»Poet and essayist Durs Grünbein is considered a scholarly poet. In his new volume of poetry he proves his rank once more.« Manfred Papst, Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag
»Neo-Romantic nostalgia is far from the mind of Durs Grünbein, who is probably the most eloquent, knowledgeable and educated poet in the German-speaking area.« Ulrich Greiner, DIE ZEIT
»Far from avant-garde gimmicks the poet relies on the traditional form, his poetry […] encompasses a cosmological unity wherein the somnambulant and the dreamer find the moon their familiar patron saint.« Björn Hayer, Die Tagespost
»In a poetic and analytic way, enthusiastic about education, Durs Grünbein orbits moon and earth. If we try to rotate along we will find pleasure: because the poet enchants us by disenchanting the moon – while still succumbing to its charm.« Simone Dattenberger, Münchner Merkur
»Poet and essayist Durs Grünbein is considered a scholarly poet. In his new volume of poetry he proves his rank once more.« Manfred Papst, Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag
»Neo-Romantic nostalgia is far from the mind of Durs Grünbein, who is probably the most eloquent, knowledgeable and educated poet in the German-speaking area.« Ulrich Greiner, DIE ZEIT
»Far from avant-garde gimmicks the poet relies on the...
Persons
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
The Years at the Zoo
English world rights (Seagull), Sweden (Ersatz)
Colossus in the Fog
Durs Grünbein’s volumes of poetry are known for grasping their subjetcs in larger and larger circles, in their concentric sprawl they seem made for this age of globalisation. His new collection of poetry follows the outline of an exhibition. Works from the last five to eight years are presented in seven sections.
There are images of a journey, excursions into the unknown routine,...
The Vocation of Poetry
Proceeding on the observation that poetics that create norms and set benchmarks no longer existed, Grünbein traces his poetic career as a »sketch of a personal psychopoetics«.
This...
English world rights (Upper West Side Philosophers), Turkey (Ketebe)
The Bars of Atlantis
The term »metaphor« derives from the Greek metà phérein (»to carry elsewhere«), which, in Antiquity, usually meant »by ship«, so that sea travel itself soon became a metaphor for poetry....
English world rights (FSG), Sweden (Ersatz), Albania (Aleph Klub)
Praise of the Typhoon
Durs Grünbein visited Japan four times, in pursuit of a long elective affinity for the East that is also reflected in his works. During all of the four journeys he kept a travel journal in the...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: France (Voix de Plumes)
The Cartesian Diver
English world rights (Upper West Side Philosophers), Sweden (Ersatz)
Verses for the Day after Tomorrow
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi)
Poem and Secret
This volume contains 25 essays. It provides a chronological rip cut of Durs Grünbein‘s rich essay writing over the course of more than 15 years – from the early, much-quoted texts...
Italy (Einaudi)
Antique Dispositions
Porcelain
English world rights (Seagull)
The Misanthrope on Capri
The Misanthrope on Capri (a reference to emperor Tiberius) gathers Durs Grünbein’s »histories«, printed in various publications and in his own volumes of poetry – poems that mainly deal...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Poland (Slowo)
On Snow or Descartes in Germany
France (Greges), Italy (Einaudi), Sweden (Ersatz)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Greece (Keedros)
Why Live Without Writing
In the nine essays and speeches collected in this volume, Durs Grünbein circles the prerequisites, conditions and consequences of writing.
»The intimate tries to assert itself through writing,« he says, »paradoxically by exposing itself publicly. But it soon becomes clear that the public is nothing by a particularly impervious protective layer.« Grünbein lets the reader partake in...
Declared Night
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi), Hungary (Jelenkor)
The First Year
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi)
After the Satires
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: France (Petits Matins), Hungary (Jelenkor)
The Dear Dead
»Stop, wanderer, and read!«, called out the tombstones to the passers-by two thousand years ago. Inscriptions spoke of the pleasures of the deceased, of profession and merit, character...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Portuguese rights (Angelus Novus), Norway (Bokvennen), Japan (CHUO University Press)
Grey Area in the Mornings
Durs Grünbein notes his experience of reality in crass and direct images and propels his poems forward by the »silent turmoil« of an elegiac expressionism.
In these poems, a...
Italy (Einaudi)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Poesia Hidalgo), Galician (Edicions Xerais), France (L’Arche Éditeur), Czech Republic (Opus), Hungary (Jelenkor)