MICHAEL AUGUSTIN: MICKLE MAKES MUCKLE translated from the German by Sujata Bhatt Dedalus Press 13 Moyclare Road Baldoyle Dublin 13 Ireland ISBN 978 1 904556 71 8 €12 visit the website of Dedalus Press Web design by This page last updated: 14th December 2007. |
MICHAEL AUGUSTIN: MICKLE MAKES MUCKLE | |
The translator, born in India, is the wife of the poet (born in Germany) and a poet in her own right. Augustin has provided drawings in addition to poems, mini-plays, and prose within this 140-page volume, some of which have appeared in translation elsewhere. The book is smartly formatted by the Irish press. I think that the adjective generally fitted to describe the contents is 'droll'. An AFTERWORD by PHILIP CASEY describes them as funny, quirky, intriguing, provoking and ultimately moving. For me the drollery, or whatever term is used, does not always come off or is not justified. Some click, others don't. It invokes a not disreputable suspicion that audience reception would vary in Germany and England or Ireland. However, many items conceal hilarity within flat statement or question which must be amusing nation-wide. Take SOME QUESTIONS REGARDING POEMS: How many poems per month does an average family of four need to make ends meet?or Does a poem have more or fewer lives than a cat, and how many lives does a poem about cats have?Other work can be gruesome and quirky at the same time. I quote BURIAL AT SEA in full: A gust of wind knocks the boat over. The entire congregation of mourners drowns. Only the urn floats.Perhaps it is all not quite what one expects, but to expect is to spoil the cunning mental twists which rebound within this poet's brain. | ||
reviewer: Eric Ratcliffe. |