Shadow Lands: Selected Poems

In the four years between the appearance of his first collection of poems in 1961 and his death at the age of forty-eight, Johannes Bobrowski gained lasting international recognition as the outstanding East German poet of his time. He received major literary awards for his poetry and fiction in Austria, Switzerland, East and West Germany. The first selection of his poems in English translation - "Shadow Land", 1966 - was greeted with enthusiasm by critics and readers alike, and was rapidly reprinted. A second selection, "From the Rivers", appeared in 1975. "Shadow Lands" demonstrates the range of Bobrowski's poetic achievement by bringing together all the poems which Ruth and Matthew Mead have been able to translate. It revises and consolidates their earlier selections, adding some fifty new poems. Michael Hamburger discusses the background and special qualities of Bobrowski's work in his introductory essay.