Curt Meyer-Clason

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Curt Meyer-Clason (born September 19, 1910 in Ludwigsburg ; † January 13, 2012 in Munich ) was a German translator , editor and important bridge builder to Latin American and especially to Brazilian literature.

Life

After attending the Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium in Stuttgart, Curt Meyer-Clason completed an apprenticeship in banking, then commercial training, first (1929–1932) in Stuttgart, then (1933–1936) in Bremen. He worked as a commercial clerk in Bremen and from 1936 as a freelance businessman for a North American cotton company in France, Argentina and from 1937 in São Paulo . In 1940 he opened an office in São Paulo. His autobiographical novel Equator reflects the fascination with which Brazil enveloped him: “A continent swallowed him.” From 1942 to 1946 he was on the Ilha Grande as an “ enemy alien ”before Rio de Janeiro interned . During this time he discovered literature. In 1955 he returned to Germany and worked as a freelance publishing editor in Munich. From the 1960s onwards, his work as a translator, especially for Portuguese, Spanish and Latin American authors, became increasingly popular.

From 1969 to 1976 Meyer-Clason was director of the Goethe Institute in Lisbon . He took over the office during the dictatorship of the Estado Novo and witnessed the Carnation Revolution first hand. Meyer-Clason then lived in Munich.

Curt Meyer-Clason was a member of the Association of German Writers , the PEN Center of the Federal Republic of Germany and, since 1981, a corresponding member of the Academia Brasileira de Letras in Rio de Janeiro . He received u. a. The following awards: 1972 the translator award of the German Academy for Language and Poetry , 1978 the translator award of the cultural group in the Federal Association of German Industry and 1973 the Federal Cross of Merit 1st class .

Curt Meyer-Clason, who also emerged as a narrator and essayist , has made an important contribution to the reception of newer Latin American literature in the German-speaking area with his numerous translations and as the editor of anthologies .

Curt Meyer-Clason died at the age of 101 on January 13, 2012. Obituaries for him appeared in the FAZ on January 19, 2012 and by Tilman Spengler in Die Welt on January 20, 2012.

estate

Curt Meyer-Clason's estate is in the archive of the Ibero-American Institute of Prussian Cultural Heritage (IAI) in Berlin.

Fonts

Fiction; Autobiographical; Writings on literary studies

  • Literatura alemana actual , Asunción 1969
  • First, freedom , Wuppertal 1978
  • Portuguese diaries , Königstein / Ts. 1979
  • Equator , Bergisch Gladbach 1986
  • On the way , Bergisch Gladbach 1989
  • People don't die, they are enchanted , Munich 1990
  • The big island , Reicheneck 1995
  • The Unknown , Munich 1999
  • I'll be right back , Weitra 2000

Editing

  • The herons and other Brazilian stories , Herrenalb / Schwarzwald 1967
  • Letras alemanas contemporáneas [ Contemporary German Literature], Buenos Aires 1968
  • The White Storm and other Argentine stories , Tübingen 1969 (together with Wilhelm Anton Oerley)
  • The God of the Seafarers and other Portuguese stories , Tübingen 1972
  • Brazilian poetry of the 20th century , Munich 1975
  • Portugal: Song of the Revolution , Munich 1975
  • Our friends, the dictators , Munich 1980
  • Latin Americans on Europe , Frankfurt am Main 1987
  • Poetry from Latin America , Munich 1988
  • Portuguese Tales of the Twentieth Century , Freiburg 1988
  • Portuguese poetry of the 20th century , Munich 1993
  • The teaching of the foreign - the emptiness of the foreign , Tübingen 1997
  • Modernismo brasileiro and contemporary Brazilian poetry , Berlin 1997

Translations

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of his publisher , accessed on January 19, 2012
  2. ^ Obituary notice Süddeutsche Zeitung , accessed on January 21, 2012
  3. ↑ a b "He always hit the right note" , Michi Strausfeld on the death of the translator Curt Meyer-Clason, accessed on January 18, 2012.
  4. ↑ Orlando Grossegesse : Curt Meyer-Clason. Quick-change artist between Brazil and Germany . In: Tópicos , ISSN  0949-541X , vol. 49 (2010), issue 3, pp. 48-49, here p. 48.
  5. ↑ Quoted from: Appreciation ( memento of February 28, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) of the German Lusitanist Association on the 100th birthday of Curt Meyer-Clason, accessed on February 27, 2017. The unnamed author of most of the text is Orlando Grossegesse.
  6. ↑ Orlando Grossegesse: Curt Meyer-Clason. Quick-change artist between Brazil and Germany . In: Tópicos , vol. 49 (2010), issue 3, pp. 48–49, here p. 49.
  7. ↑ Representative of German culture at the Tejo DLF with audio report, January 7, 2011
  8. ^ Goethe Institute - Meyer-Clason and Marschall von Bieberstein: Goethe's pioneers
personal data
SURNAME Meyer-Clason, Curt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German translator, editor and writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigsburg
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 2012
Place of death Munich