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Louise Glück writes verses very quietly
Photo: SHAWN THEW / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
The automatically generated subtitles for the announcement of this year's Nobel Prize for Literature were also overwhelmed: "Glick, Glick" was written down there and it was thought that the machine transcription might have transcribed the click of the cameras.
But no: the winner is called Glück, first name Louise.
The Nobel Prize Committee may just want a bit of peace and quiet.
In 2019, everyone was amazed that, after the scandals of the previous years - after all the allegations of rape, taking advantage and betrayal - the members of the Swedish Academy chose Peter Handke as the award winner.
And thus the noise, the allegations, the scandal calls only increased.
The great second prize winner Olga Tokarczuk didn't help either.
Nature poems, introspection, retreat.
A little Handke, minus Yugoslavia
So now: finally silence.
Louise lucky.
A poet whose poems really only know a tiny number of people in Germany.
You should now be able to take a quick look at the country’s literary editorial offices, as everyone is talking excitedly around.
Happiness?
Happiness?
How can that be?
I also had to read into the Glück work first.
"Wilde Iris" and "Averno" are the names of the two volumes, which, translated by Ulrike Draesner, appeared in German years ago.
Nature poems, introspection, retreat.
A little Handke, minus Yugoslavia.
Poems as salvation from a hostile world: "Here I was young, took the subway with my little book, as if to defend myself against this very world: / you are not alone, said the poem in the dark tunnel."
Very quiet verses from the country of the president who overran the world with his anger.
"It's time to rest; you've had enough hustle and bustle for now."
No, the poetry of Louise Glück, whose grandparents, Hungarian Jews, emigrated to New York, who grew up on Long Island herself, no power in the world can exploit this poetry for itself.
"I'm tired of you, chaos of the living world - I can only expand to a living being for a limited time."
Perhaps that was what the Nobel Committee wanted to give us with the decision: the silence after the scandals.
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