Mayflies (poetry book)
Mayflies is a volume of poetry by Günter Grass that the writer published on the occasion of his 85th birthday in 2012. It was published by Steidl Verlag in September 2012 and contains 87 poems. The volume addresses aging and death and contains a critical declaration of love for Germany.
content
In one of the 87 texts in the volume of poetry, Grass describes his encounter with the writer Max Frisch , who years ago advised him “to stay angry into old age and not - as is expected - to become wise in the all-soothing evening light”. From then on he followed the advice of his older colleague and confessed this way of life in the short poem Guter Rat .
In the poem entitled Delayed Protection Letter for Oskar Pastior , Grass defends the Romanian-German writer and Büchner Prize winner Oskar Pastior . Pastior had been an informal employee of the Romanian secret service Securitate from 1961 until his flight to the West in 1968. According to Grass, Pastior, himself a victim of Stalinism, acted out of great fear of re-imprisonment in what was then communist Romania.
About half a year after his poem What Must Be Said, which was critical of Israel, Grass praises the Israeli nuclear engineer Mordechai Vanunu as a role model. Vanunu was sentenced to 18 years in prison in Israel in 1986 for talking about Israel's nuclear research program. The Israeli secret service Mossad had previously lured him to Rome using a female decoy and kidnapped him from there to Israel. "Only such heroes are needed in a world / that whispers peace and plans annihilation," Grass wrote about Vanunu. Grass does not name the Mossad, but writes of a "gang" that "uninhibitedly does not shy away from murder".
The version of the poem What Must Be Said, initially published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung , is included in the new volume of poems in a modified form. In this version it is no longer said that the “nuclear power Israel” endangers world peace , but the “current government of the nuclear power Israel”.
Further topics of the volume include Europe, Greece, the wear and tear on Federal Presidents, the complaints of old age and the ever-approaching death. The loss of Grass' long-time editor Helmut Frielinghaus is lyrically processed. But also the sports show or masturbation, which the Catholic Church no longer considers a serious sin, is treated: "Even our Pope can shamelessly do now / what he did from an early age: smile relieved / we see him, freed from sins and indulgences."
Grass' love for Germany is expressed in the title Despite everything . He does not mention Germany by name, but describes it as "my country". It annoys him that his own highly indebted country is forcing other countries to save, exporting arms and drifting apart socially.
Illustrations
Each poem on the linen tape is illustrated by Grass with his own watercolor pen drawings of mayflies .
Reactions
The Hebrew-Language Writers' Association criticized Grass running an "obsessive campaign to shame Israel". Grass denies the Jewish state the right to self-defense, said the chairman of the association, Herzl Chakak. He called on intellectuals around the world to distance themselves from Grass. He also announced that the racism of the Nazi regime was burned into Grass' genetic makeup. "If Grass were to take action against Iran's nuclear armament, he could erase the traces of the swastika on his clothing," "but his crusade against the Jewish people and Israel continues, and he cannot be forgiven for this," said Chakak.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Günter Grass : Mayflies. 1st edition. Steidl Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86930-514-1 .
- ↑ New volume of poetry: Günter Grass provokes Israel again. In: Focus online . September 29, 2012 (online) .
- ↑ Israel reacts ironically to Grass' poem. In: Spiegel online. September 30, 2012. (spiegel.de)