Hilde Domin [Hildegard Löwenstein Palm] (Germany)
1909-2006
Hildegard
Löwenstein was born, the daughter of a German-Jewish lawyer, in Cologne in
1909. She studies from 1929 to 1932 at several universities, including
Heidelberg University, Cologne University, the University of Bonn, and the
Humboldt University of Berlin, beginning with law and changing her majors to
economics, social sciences and philosophy. Her teachers included Karl Jaspers
and Karl Mannheim.
With the increasingly virulent anti-Semitism of the early 1930s, she emigrated to Italy with her friend and future husband, Erwin Walter Palm, a student of Archaeology. There she received a PhD in political science in Florence and worked as a language teacher in Rome from 1935-1939. She and Palm were married in 1936.
After Hitler's visit to Rome and with the increasingly tense atmosphere of fascist Italy under Mussolini's rule, she and Palm went to English, where she worked as a teacher at St. Aldyn's College. But here fears of Nazism continued to rise, as the couple tried unsuccessfully to get a visa to the United States, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. Finally they were able obtain a visa to the Dominican Republic, to where they emigrated in 1940.
They lived there, in Santo Domingo, for
fourteen years, Hilde working as a translator and lecturer at the University of
Santo Domingo. She also became an architectural photographer, documenting the
old city of Santo Domingo, which was featured in her husband's important book
on the art and architecture of "Europe's oldest American City." That
book helped the Dominican government to have UNESCO grant that entire sector of
the city as a World Heritage Site. In November 2006, Hilde was awarded the
Ordeer of Merit of Duarte, Sanchez and Mella in recognition of her efforts to
advance Dominican culture.
After the death of her mother in 1951, Hilde began to write poetry under the pseudonym of Hilde Domin, meeting regularly with Prats Ramíez and other Santo Domingo intellectuals to discuss literature and poetry.
It was not until 1954 that she her husband, whose family had all been killed by the Nazis, returned to Germany. Domin lived as a writer in Heidelberg from 1961 until her death.
During these years she wrote books of both
poetry and prose, and corresponded from 1960 to 1967 with her close friend, the
Nobel Prize-winning Nelly Sachs, living in Stockholm. Her husband died in 1986.
Domin's poetry is simple, both in its
vocabulary and its subject, and, accordingly, is easily accessible to readers.
Her 1986 answer to if a poet needed courage, clarifies her vision: "A
Writer needs three types of courage. To be himself/herself. The courage not to
lie and to misrepresent and skew, to call things by their right names. And
thirdly, to believe in the open mindedness and forthrightness of the
others." In 1974 and 1982, Domin penned her autobiographies Von der
Natur nicht vorgesehen and Aber die Hoffnung. Autobiographisches aus und über
Deutschland.
Domin continued to read her poems to
audiences through the year of her February 2006 death.
BOOKS
OF POETRY
Hilde
Domin - Gesammelte Gedichte (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer); Ziehende Landschaft
(1955); Nur eine Rose als Stütze (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, 1959);
Rückkehr der Schiffe (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, 1962); Linguistik
(1963); Hier: Gedichte (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch, 1993); Höhlenbilder
(Duisburg: Hildebrandt ,1968); Ich will dich (München: R. Piper 1970);
Unaufhaltsam (1962); Abel steh auf: Gedichte, Prosa, Theorie (Stuttgart:
Reclam, 1979; Hier: Gedicte (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch,
1993); Nachkrieg und Unfrieden: Gedichte 1945-1995 (Frankfurt am Main :
Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1995); Der Baum blüht trotzdem (Frankfurt am
Main : S. Fischer, 1999); Ausgewählte Gedichte (Frankfurt am Main:
Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, (2000)
ENGLISH
LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS
In
Four German Poets: Günter Eich, Hilde Domin, Erich Fried, Günter Kunert,
trans. by Agnes Stein (New York: Red Dust, 1979)
Abel
Arise
Abel
arise
it
must be played again
daily
it must be played again
daily
the answer must lie ahead
the
answer yes must be made possible
if
you don't arise Abel
how
shall the answer
the
only significant answer
how
shall it ever change
we
can close all churches
abolish
all law books
in
all the languages of the globe
if
only you rise
and
make it unspoken
the
first false answer
to
the only question
that
counts
arise
so
that Cain says
so
that he may say
I
am your keeper
Brother
how
could I not be your keeper
daily
arise
that
it may lie ahead
this
yes I am here
I
your
brother
so
that the children of Abel
may
no longer be afraid
because
Cain will not be Cain
I
am writing this
I
a child of Abel
daily
afraid
of
the answer
the
air in my lungs diminishes
as
I wait for the answer
Abel
arise
that
there may be new beginnings
among
all of us
The
fires that burn
the
fire that burns on the earth
shall
be the fire of Abel
and
in the missles' tail
shall
be the fire of Abel
—Translated
from the German by Agnes Stein
(from
Ich Will Dich, 1970)
Precautionary
Measures
Autumn
is coming
we
must put lions on the leash
No
one will come too close to us
if
we keep the right animals
Something
larger than man
when
standing on its hind legs
He
who returns the dog's bite
who
steps on the snake's head
who
presses shut the alligator's eyes
he'll
be all right
—Translated
from the German by Agnes Stein
(from
Ich Will Dich, 1970)
Birthdays
1
She
is dead
today
is her birthday
this
is the day
on
which she
in
this triangle
between
the legs of her mother
was
pushed forth
she
who
pushed me forth
between
her legs
she
is ashes
2
Always
I think
on
the birth of a deer
the
way it sets its legs on the ground
3
I've
forced no one into the light
only
words
words
do not turn the head
they
stand up
immediately
and
walk off
—Translated
from the German by Agnes Stein
(from
Ich Will Dich, 1970)
Ars
Longa
The
breath
in
a bird's throat
breath
of air
in
the branches.
The
word
like
the wind itself
its
holy breath
goes
in and out.
Always
the breath finds
branches
clouds
throat
of birds.
Always
the word
the
holy word
in
a mouth.
—Translated
from the German by Agnes Stein
(from
Hier, 1966)
_______
English
language copyright ©1979 by Red Dust
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