{"id":107,"date":"2014-04-16T17:32:42","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T17:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mytwostotinki.com\/?p=107"},"modified":"2015-07-05T11:10:10","modified_gmt":"2015-07-05T11:10:10","slug":"poetry-the-abyss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mytwostotinki.com\/?p=107","title":{"rendered":"Poetry: the Abyss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Abyss\u201d is the name of the journal in which the young would-be poet Karl Eugen Eiselein is publishing his works \u2013 and the name seems to be program since this journal is publishing the works without paying royalties and only after Eiselein is renewing the yearly subscription. It is Eiselein\u2019s shopkeeper parents who pay for their only son\u2019s education and his expensive fancies\u2026and who have to throw more and more money into this abyss called \u201cpoetry\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a moment when he starts to doubt his vocation, young Eiselein is writing letters to the two symbolist poets he admires \u2013 and they answer, one of them in the \u201csymbolist\u201d style of his poems, the other one surprisingly bold and direct: he is asking for a loan from the young admirer (and reducing Eiselein\u2019s illusions regarding the life style of a poet considerably by telling him that his object of admiration is surviving rarely by doing some hackwork as – a sports journalist!).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hesse\u2019s early story is balancing between the two possible outcomes: tragedy and comedy. His ironic description of the life of the Eiselein family with a benevolent but weak father and a strong and more realistic mother who shifts the \u201cpower balance\u201d in the family to her favor as the story enfolds, his acerbic remarks about the literary fashions of the time (his particular targets are Oscar Wilde and the not explicitly mentioned but easily recognizable Stefan George) and his sympathy with (and ridicule for) the hero who has a lot in common with the young Hesse himself make this 60-pages story still a nice read for an evening.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The story was originally published 1903 in the \u201cNeue Zuercher Zeitung\u201d and later included in Hesse\u2019s collection of stories \u201cNeighbors<\/em>\u201d (1908). Suhrkamp published the story a few years ago as a separate book with the reproduction of a neat Hesse watercolor on the title. It seems that there is so far no English translation. It would be worth it. The story is one of Hesse\u2019s best early works.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"KarlEugenEiselein\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hermann Hesse: Karl Eugen Eiselein, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am\u00a0<\/strong>Main\u00a0198<\/strong>5<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0Thomas H\u00fcbner\u00a0and mytwostotinki.com, 2014. Unauthorized use and\/or duplication of this material without expressed and written permission from this blog\u2019s author and\/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to\u00a0Thomas H\u00fcbner\u00a0and mytwostotinki.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.<\/pre>\n
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