Günther Debon

Günther Debon (born May 13, 1921 in Munich ; † December 1, 2005 in Neckargemünd ) was a German sinologist .

Life

After his school days in Hanover and a prisoner of war in a British camp, Debon studied Sinology , Japanese Studies and Sanskrit in Munich from 1948 (partly together with his later colleague Wolfgang Bauer ) . In 1953 he took up a teaching position at the University of Cologne . In 1968 he was appointed to the chair of Sinology at the University of Heidelberg as the successor to Wolfgang Bauer . Günther Debon is one of the most prominent German translators of Chinese poetry , alongside Günter Eich . He also studied Chinese palindromes.

Starting in 1961, Debon published Limericks, classified as serious and perfectly formed, under the pseudonym Ernst Fabian in Buchheim Verlag, later in 1978/1980 by Langewiesche-Brandt Verlag, Ebenhausen. He only released this pseudonym in 1997 in Guderjahn-Verlag, Heidelberg.

After his retirement in 1986, Debon mainly devoted himself to Germanic subjects (e.g. Goethe and China, Schiller and China). He located Goethe's famous ginkgo poem , which was long considered to be based in Frankfurt, at Heidelberg Castle .

Works

• Autumnal bright glow over the lake. Chinese poems from the Tang period . Munich: Piper 1953.
• The ferry in the snow. Japanese poems of recent times . Munich: Piper 1955.
• A white dress - a gray band. Chinese songs from the 12th-7th centuries Century BC Chr . With 8 pictures. Munich: Piper 1957.
• Chinese spiritual world from Confucius to Mao Tse-Tung (together with Werner Speiser ). Baden-Baden: Holle 1957.
• Li Tai-bo. Intoxication and immortality , Verlag Kurt Desch, Munich, Vienna, Basel 1958.
• Lao Tse. Tao-Tê-King. The Holy Book of the Way and Virtue . Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam jun. 1979. ISBN 3-15-006798-7
• China. History, philosophy, religion, literature, technology (together with Wolfgang Bauer, Herbert Franke and Ruprecht Kurzrock). Berlin: Colloquium 1980. ISBN 3-7678-0477-8
• East Asian literatures . (Vol. 23, together with Klaus von See and Ernst Fabian). Wiesbaden: Aula 1984. ISBN 3-89104-071-7
• My way is lost in white clouds afar. Chinese poetry from three millennia . Heidelberg: Lambert Schneider 1988. ISBN 3-7953-0773-2
• My house is far from people, but close to things. Three thousand years of Chinese poetry . Munich: Eugen Diederichs 1988. ISBN 3-424-00938-5
• A smile to you. Heidelberg poems . Heidelberg: Guderjahn 1989. ISBN 3-924973-08-3
• On the shores of distant days. Japanese Poetry of the New Age . Munich: Piper 1990. ISBN 3-492-11241-2
• The happiness of the world. Seconds . Heidelberg: Guderjahn 1990. ISBN 3-924973-10-5
• The Heidelberg year of Joseph von Eichendorff . Heidelberg: Guderjahn 1991. ISBN 3-924973-13-X
• There was a teacher in Lehrte. Almost 400 Limericks from Ernst Fabian. Selected and provided with an afterword on the history of Limerick by Günter Debon. With over 60 drawings by Jules Stauber. Heidelberg: Guderjahn 1997. ISBN 3-924973-80-6
• A good millennium. New studies and essays, aphorisms and dramatic scenes . Heidelberg: Guderjahn, 2000. ISBN 3-924973-78-4
• The crane calls. Chinese songs of the oldest times . Berlin: Ivory 2003. ISBN 978-3-932245-62-6
• Qualities of verse. Essay . Berlin: Ivory 2009. ISBN 978-3-932245-97-8

literature

• Roderich Ptak and Siegfried Englert (Eds.) Very gradually. Essays on East Asian literature, especially on Chinese poetry . Festschrift for Günther Debon. Heidelberg: Heidelberger Verlagsanstalt 1986. ISBN 3-920431-62-6
• Roderich Ptak: Obituary , In: Journal of the German Oriental Society, Volume 157 (2007) ULB Halle
• Hartmut Walravens: Günther Debon: My house is remote from people, but close to things. Three thousand years of Chinese poetry . In: Oriens extremus . tape 34 , 1991, ISSN  0030-5197 ( online [PDF] review).

Web links

• Literature by and about Günther Debon in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Short biography in A good millennium (2000).