On Earth and In Hell

by Thomas Bernhard; translated by Peter Waugh

Translator and poet Peter Waugh, whose recent translation of Thomas Bernhard’s first book, ON EARTH AND IN HELL (Three Rooms Press, October 2015) has received widespread critical acclaim, will be part of a panel discussion exploring the poetry of Thomas Bernhard. The event takes place Monday, January 25 at Österreichische Gesellschaft für Literatur in Vienna. Admission is free.

The panel will include translators who have presented the great Austrian author’s poetry in German, Polish, English and Italian. It is coordinate with the Thomas Bernhard Private Foundation.

The Three Rooms Press edition of ON EARTH AND IN HELL earned noteworthy praise from leading poets. Noted poet Edward Hirsch noted, “These hard won-poems, these furious convulsions, by turns savage and tender, mark the beginning of Thomas Bernhard’s true work, his first startling blows. It is deeply illuminating to have them so wonderfully translated into English.”

In her introduction, poet Jaimy Gordon wrote, “In these poems, written in Bernhard’s mid-twenties . . . all the matter of the subsequent malicious laughter is there—the self-splitting disgust and nostalgia, the hyperbolic despair, the failed (desired but also scorned) glory, the juxtaposition of village idyll and doom, of scathing superiority and terminal degradation, of sex, and nauseated frailty and exhaustion.”

And the New York Journal of Books said, “Peter Waugh offers haunting and beautiful renderings of Thomas Bernhard’s poetry…A fascinating peek into the genesis of Austria’s controversial literary figure.”

Thomas Bernhard (1931–1989) was an Austrian playwright, novelist, and poet. His body of work was cited in a New York Times book review as “the most significant literary achievement since World War II.” He is widely considered one of the most innovative and original authors of the twentieth century and often associated with fellow mavericks Beckett, Kafka and Dostoevsky.

Peter Waugh is a poet, translator and editor, born in Barnet, London in 1956. He is co-editor of subdream the Vienna Journal of English Language Poetry, and publisher of Labyrinth poetry books. He studied with Allen Ginsberg, Ann Waldman, Jackson Mac Low, Ed Sanders, Andrew Schelling, Blixa Bargeld, Andrei Bitov, Henri Chopin and others. His poetry has appeared in anthologies and magazines in England, the U.S.A., Austria, Slovakia, Macedonia and Croatia, as well as in the chapbooks Horizon Firelight (2000) and Haiku Butterfly Death Dream (2002). He is a member of Übersetzergemeinschaft literarischer und wissenschaftlicher Werke (Austrian Society of Literary and Academic Translators) and his highly-respected translations include the bilingual German-English volumes Terminal by Klara Köttner-Benigni and Standpoints by Edith Sommer. He lives in Vienna.

Details of the event are below. Additional information is available on the institute website: http://www.ogl.at

Montag, 25.01.2016, 18:00 Uhr
LITERATUR.ÜBERSETZUNG
THOMAS BERNHARD – GEDICHTE
in deutscher, polnischer, englischer und italienischer Sprache

Anlässlich des Erscheinens von:

Thomas Bernhard: »Werke in 22 Bänden – Band 21: Gedichte«, hrsg. von Raimund Fellinger (Suhrkamp),

Thomas Bernhard: »Śmierć i Tymianek / Tod und Thymian«, Auswahl und Übersetzung: Sława Lisiecka, Zdzisław Jaskuła, Ryszard Wojnakowski (Wrocław: Oficyna Atut),

Thomas Bernhard: »On Earth and in Hell. Early Poems.
A Bilingual Edition«, translated by Peter Waugh (New York City: Three Rooms Press)

Thomas Bernhard: »Sotto il ferro della luna. Unter dem Eisen des Mondes«. Traduzione di Samir Thabet. (Milano: Crocetti Editore, Fondazione Poesia Onlus).

Es sprechen die Herausgeber bzw. Übersetzer
Raimund Fellinger, Sława Lisiecka, Samir Thabet, Peter Waugh und Ryszard Wojnakowski.

Lesung: Alexander Wächter
Moderation: Evelyn Breiteneder
Gemeinsam mit der Thomas-Bernhard-Privatstiftung
Im Anschluss Erfrischungen