(no subject)

[proximoception]

Nobody tells me anything: Michael Hamburger died. His translations of Holderlin, Celan, Hofmannsthal, Trakl, Goethe, Rilke, Buchner etc. are usually the best ones (also wasn't too shabby with Baudelaire). He was shy about rhyme, but mostly because he couldn't stand, and never wrote, awkward rhymed translaterese. After Wilbur and the late Nims, my favorite contemporary translator. Apparently he befriended Sebald in his last years and shows up in his work, some of which he also translated. I've read only a little of his criticism and original poetry, but that little was rather fine. To the extent I have any read on his personality, I'd say he was very thoughtful. Poems are trying to work something out, and translations are trying to work out both that work and that something, seemed to be his view. Not much polished, but nothing glossed over. I'm startled to realize I've read more pages that he translated than original ones by many of my favorite writers. With great pleasure, too--meaning, I guess, that he was one.