Poetry. Bilingual Edition. Translated from the German by Robert Firmage. SONG OF THE DEPARTED brings back into print poems written at the height of Georg Trakl's career. Trakl boldly confronted the conflicts created by the pursuit of truth amidst the fallenness of the human condition, writing of the unspeakable that lies beyond language, creating poetry that is intensely personal and eerily beautiful. Included in this revised edition are several new translations and an introduction by the translator. "I do not understand them; but their tone pleases me. It is the tone of true genius"—Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Author City: Salzburg AST

Georg Trakl was born in Salzburg, Austria, in 1887. He served as a medical officer during World War I, an experience that led to a suicide attempt. As a lyric poet, he set a dark, introspective tone that deeply influenced the course of German expressionism. He died in 1914 in Kraków, after an overdose of cocaine.