By Bertolt Brecht
Translated by David Constantine and Tom Kuhn

“These poems, half of which appear here in English for the very first time, are anything but dry. They can be funny and bleak, moralising and wicked, passionate and philosophical, with a rich seam of coal-black humour. In his plays, Brecht kept the audience at arm’s length, but here he invites them in. The translators, Tom Kuhn and David Constantine, create a voice for Brecht that feels fresh and alive, whether in tightly knit rhymes, free verse or prose. It’s easy to forget you’re reading a translation.”—The Telegraph

“His poetry served as the lyric laboratory of his personal, political, and philosophical ideas. Thanks to this astonishing compendium, English-speakers finally have access to this essential aspect of Brecht’s writing and thinking.”—Yuval Sharon

A landmark literary event, The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht is the most extensive English translation of Brecht’s poetry to date.

Widely celebrated as the greatest German playwright of the twentieth century, Bertolt Brecht was also, as George Steiner observed, “that very rare phenomenon, a great poet, for whom poetry is an almost everyday visitation and drawing of breath.” Hugely prolific, Brecht also wrote more than two thousand poems―though fewer than half were published in his lifetime, and early translations were heavily censored. Now, award-winning translators David Constantine and Tom Kuhn have heroically translated more than 1,200 poems in the most comprehensive English collection of Brecht’s poetry to date. Written between 1913 and 1956, these poems celebrate Brecht’s unquenchable “love of life, the desire for better and more of it,” and reflect the technical virtuosity of an artist driven by bitter and violent politics, as well as by the untrammeled forces of love and erotic desire. A monumental achievement and a reclamation, The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht is a must-have for any lover of twentieth-century poetry.

Hardcover
1312 pages
Liveright; 1 edition, 2018
6.5 x 1.4 x 9.6 inches
ISBN 9780871407672
Poetry