Durs Grünbein was born in former East Germany in 1962 and has become known as one of the main poetic voices from the now unified state. Previously his works had not been available with English translations but Ashes for Breakfast, a selection from all of his publications, was released in 2005. Grünbein’s poetry is both light, with questioning whimsy and a humorous skepticism, but with a contrasting backdrop that reminds the readers of the 20th century traumas remaining embedded within the historical fabric of Europe. In that, a comparison can be made with the poems written by the Polish poet, Wislawa Szymborska, the late Russian poet, Joseph Brodsky, and Charles Simic. I would also throw in the American poet and novelist, Jim Harrison, as Grünbein share’s Harrison’s inclination to level the realities of human life with smiling graciousness and stoical acceptance.

It is interesting to note how Grünbein’s poetry develops as he has books that were published both prior and after the German unification. His first, Mornings in the Grayzone (1988), reflects the bland austerity that was endemic to Europe’s communist countries. Yet, through poetry and art, Grünbein was able to find hopeful beauty through the wonder of the day to day. The first poem in the selection noting, albeit wryly, the orange sauce from a crushed can of sardines and the litter of propane bottles, their lone existence keeping “whatever this morning promises/ by way of beauty.” He relays a vision that sought out the truthful simplicities that can substantiate a person’s quality of life, “there is was again/ that haiku-unerringness.”, and this as a defiance to the politics of the time:

Two small clouds
moved off
in a westerly direction,
the city dyed the heavens
gray overhead and
I said I had enjoyed
wandering over the garbage
heaps with you.

The next publication was in 1991 and I suspect that the poems were written both before and after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, as there is an echo of its existence,


“...umpteen years of service with a view of barbed wire fence,
Trotting back and forth upcountry and down, only a dog could endure,”


but without a pervasion which would identify it as something unsurmountable. An experience in the past and which he now understands how it had been dealt with,

“But I remained stoical, eyeing my terrain.
When I stood to attention on all fours,
With my dynamited pelt, the ground earthed me.”

An emphasis upon the individual responsibility of defining one’s life through one’s own means, “No underdog-victim twaddle, please.”, began in the first publication and is subsequently validated in the rest of his poetry.

Grünbein’s next publication, Folds and Traps (1994), was the most enjoyable - incredible - selection for me. Written through a formal series of 13 lined poems, Grünbein focuses not upon the history of Germany, but the grubby realities that must be faced by any flesh dwelling human. Love, death, time, existence, desire, isolation, memories.... to name a few. What’s interesting with these poems is that there is no promised land glory identified with the East-West unification. In fact, it is hardly mentioned, if at all. And in actuality, instead, Grünbein has the intrusion of commerce and modern technology emerge in his poetry, demonstrating the replacement of an oppressive government with an astringent culture of capitalism.

The next two books, After the Satires (1939) and Configured Night (2002), further develop these ideas, “Isn’t all money the property/ In any case of the bank? Oh, to be a child again, grubbing in real feces.”, but while also broadening his range to include the generational history of 20th century Europe. There remains the emphasis upon personal action, for one’s own sake, but also for the morality of mankind as well. From, 'On Talking in One’s Sleep':

The damage has been done. Now you’ll see.
What holds a life together is a window in a calendar.
Even the man from Omaha– no Apollo he– will tell you
You must change it. A lot of crying goes on here.

When reading the selections from these books, ranging from 1988 to 2002, what also remains consistent is Grünbein’s valuing of the useless over the productive, wanting the reader to realize the fullness that awaits in the boring, the surprising wonderment of the non-eventful, the simplicity upon which all life is truly based. From, 'On Currency':


People change, cities change, but the mole beside your navel stays put.
And woe if you don’t perform your reverences, kissing a hand here, inclining
Your supple torso there– to this life, so useless, so rich.