Friederike Mayröcker: Requiem for Ernst Jandl

Austrian poet and playwright Ernst Jandl died in 2000, leaving behind his partner, poet Friederike Mayröcker—and bringing to an end a half century of shared life, and shared literary work. Mayröcker immediately began attempting to come to terms with his death in the way that poets struggling with loss have done for millennia: by writing.

Requiem for Ernst Jandl is the powerfully moving outcome.

In this quiet but passionate lament that grows into a song of enthralling intensity, Mayröcker recalls memories and shared experiences, and—with the sudden, piercing perception of regrets that often accompany grief—reads Jandl’s works in a new light.

Alarmed by a sudden, existential emptiness, she reflects on the future, and the possibility of going on with her life and work in the absence of the person who, as we see in this elegy, was a constant conversational and creative partner.

Friederike Mayröcker (1924–2021) was one of the most important Austrian poets of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She published over eighty works, including poetry, prose, radio plays and children’s books. Her work has been honoured with many prizes, including the Georg Büchner Prize and the Peter Huchel Prize. She lived in Vienna.

#new books
Requiem for Ernst Jandl
by Friederike Mayröcker
Translated by Roslyn Theobald
ISBN: 9781803090429
Pages: 96
Rights: UCP
Publication Year: 2022
Format: Paperback
Size: 5″ x 8″
Series: The Seagull Library of German Literature
Category: Poetry
£7.99

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