Synopses & Reviews
In these 99 meditations, poet and novelist Hans Magnus Enzensberger celebrates the tenacity of the normal and routine in everyday life, where the survival of the objects we use without thinking—a pair of scissors, perhaps—is both a small, human victory and a quiet reminder of our own ephemeral nature. He sets his quotidian reflections against a broad historic and political backdrop—the cold war and its accompanying atomic threat, the German student revolt, would-be socialism in Cuba, China, and Africa, and World War II as experienced by the youthful poet.
Enzensbergers poems are conversational, skeptical, and serene; they culminate in the extended set of observations which gives the collection its title. Clouds, alien and yet symbols of human life, are for Enzensberger at once a central metaphor of the Western poetic tradition and “the most fleeting of all masterpieces.” “Cloud archaeology,” writes Enzensberger, is “a science for angels.”
Praise for the German edition
“After reading this wonderful volume of poetry one would like to call Enzensberger simply the lyric voice of transience.”— Sueddeutsche Zeitung
“With this book Enzensberger reveals himself both as a spokesman of persistence and as a decelerator.”—Neue Zuercher Zeitung
Review
"[Enzensberger is] one of the holy trinity of German postwar literature (alongside Grass and Walser)."
Review
"In his most recent collection, A History of Clouds, he brings a scientific eye to a traditional subject, jumbling the pastoral language of 'gigantic nomads' with technical prhases such as 'rotational symmetry.'"
Review
"This latest collection from one of the most respected poets in Germany was published in German in 2003. The book is a welcome addition to the body of Enzensbergers work available in English and is a powerful reminder of the efficacy of his curiously wide-ranging intellect. As the title suggests, A History of Clouds is a series of meditations, on time, mortality, politics and the human condition, among other subjects. But Enzensberger never sinks into rhetorical preaching, even when dealing with the most contentious themes. Instead he relies on his seasoned wit and a touching attention to detail."
About the Author
Hans Magnus Enzensberger, often considered Germanys most important living poet, is also the editor of the book series Die Andere Bibliothek and the founder of the monthly TransAtlantik. His books include Lighter Than Air: Moral Poems and Civil Wars: From L.A. to Bosnia. Esther Kinsky is a literary translator and the author of the novel Sommerfrische. She has translated poetry by Angelus Silesius, Else Lasker-Schueler, and Wolf Wondratschek, among others. Martin Chalmers is a translator and editor whose translations include works by Hubert Fichte, Ernst Weiss, Herta Mueller, Alexander Kluge, Emine Sevgi Oezdamar, and Erich Hackl.
Table of Contents
I
Remembering the Poignant Moment
Sins of Omission
Invariably
Division of Labour
Lost
Genetics
Underground Station Wittenbergplatz
After-Dinner Speech at an Engagement
Obscure Camera
My Wifes Merits
Nude Shot
Temperatures
In Semi-Darkness
Surfaces
Thunderstorm in Winter
Surprises
Profane Revelation
Thirst
To the Spoilsport
II
The Way Out
Before Techno and After
For Max Sebald
The Copy
Low Notes in Liepāja
A Cosy Evening
One Day
Sans-papier. Boulevard de Port-Royal, March 1999
Peace Talks
Motivational Research
Poem in Parentheses
Child Soldiers
Interference
The Energy Field of the Dead
Stars
III
Malfunction
Further Cause for Complaint
All Kinds of Grievances
Astronomical Sunday Sermon
Little Theodicy
Ever Briefer Conversations
Concerning the Question What is More Blesséd
At Times
Spectators
So Much for Good International Relations
Lovely Days in Xinjiang
Pakse
Better Prospects
A Little Swan Song to Mobility
Power of the Keys
IV
Also One Half of Life
The Party
Pet
Voices
The Buttons
The Instruments
An Earth-Coloured Ditty
Fish Knives and Ideas
19 Berggasse
Will and Representation
A Pity
Tripps Cabinet of Curiosities
Words Fail Me
The Words, the Words
Parliamentary
The Autobiographer
Little Night Music on a Hotel Toilet
Interim Report
Superfluous Elegy
A Small Contribution Towards Reduction
V
Final Remarks on Certainty
It Might Escape Some Souls
Swans
Credit
The Advantages of the Finite
Theory of Names
Gaps in Our Knowledge
Problems Falling Asleep
Orders of Magnitude
Take Note, Bishop Berkeley
Questions for the Cosmologists
Augurs
If You Believe It
Astrolabe
Chemistry of Transparence
Lead
Climate Machine
Atomic Weight 12.011
VI
History of Clouds