Buckower Elegies
Buckower Elegien is a cycle of poems by the German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht . He wrote the poems of the cycle mainly in July and August 1953 in his residence in Buckow am Schermützelsee in Märkische Schweiz ( Brecht-Weigel-Haus ). They are considered his personal artistic reaction to the events of June 17, 1953 . Brecht was of the opinion that the demonstrations of June 17th had been infiltrated by "figures from the Nazi era" and "declassed young people" from the West and that the working class had been incited by the "class enemy". On June 17, 1953, in a letter to Walter Ulbricht , he welcomed the measures taken by the GDR leadership and the military intervention of the Soviet forces, but also warned the SED officials to have a "big debate with the masses".
In the cycle of poems, Brecht also processed the privileges he enjoyed towards working people in the GDR and also dealt with personal issues (love in Der Rauch , aging in fir trees ). The poems offer Brecht's very personal view of the political conditions in the GDR (Prussian traditions in customs, still , Nazi past eight years ago ), but also an examination of general philosophical questions (in When Reading Horace ).
In November 1953, individual poems of the cycle appeared in the magazine Sinn und Form (No. 6/1953), at the same time his publisher Peter Suhrkamp received some poems under the title Buckowlische Elegien (a play on words with Bucolic poetry ). 1954 Brecht took minor corrections to the text, adding the motto of the cycle: Ginge as a wind ... . All the poems that are now included in the collection were first published together in 1964.
contents
- The wheel change
- The flower garden
- The solution
- Big time, wasted
- Bad morning
- Habits, still
- Hot day
- The truth unites
- The smoke
- iron
- Fir trees
- The one-armed man in the wood
- Eight years ago
- Rowing, conversations
- While reading Horace
- Lute
- While reading a Soviet book
- This summer's sky
- The trowel
- The muses
- When reading a late Greek poet
Text example with interpretation
- The smoke
- The little house under the trees by the lake.
- Smoke rises from the roof.
- Was he missing
- How dreary would be then
- House, trees and lake.
At first glance, this poem is a piece of natural poetry . The technology of humans in the nature addressed by trees and lake is symbolized by the house. But both nature and man-made things only become alive and meaningful through the living presence of man himself, which is represented in the smoke that rises through the chimney and is described as comforting.
In addition to this general consideration, this poem also has a very personal reference to Brecht. While he lived in the main house on the property with his wife Helene Weigel , he housed his colleague and lover Elisabeth Hauptmann in a small garden shed . Whenever she wanted to see him, she used the fireplace to give Brecht a sign.