ModernGermanLiterature18801950

540 MODERN GERMAN LITERATURE

whose minds are disagreeably Americanized both with transliter-
ated colloquialisms (a girl has smart* Watkri) and slang. What is
aimed at is an analysis, certainly smart, of the modern European.
The influence of T. S. Eliot ('E/iotiswus'"), which is so marked in
Holthusen, is evident too in other poets - Rudolf Hagelstange,
Helmuth de Haas (Uneaturen* 1955)* Hans Erich Nossack, Heinz
Piontek; it is likely to result from study of the English texts as
well as to the indirect influence of i lolfhusen. In the case of Marie
Luise Kaschnitz the influence is direct; together with Dolf Stern-
berger she translated the Pour Qmrlets, and this appeared in the
journal Wandltmg in 1945, which printed the first translation to
make a lasting impression,, Dolf Sternherger's version of East
CoJker. The influence is direct too in the later poems of Gottfried
Benn. The impact is equally that of theme and form. The salient
fact is that during the Naxi period practically no knowledge of the
new trends in Anglo-American poetry reached Germany, so that
when, after the war, there was access to the originals the effect was
startling. Actually a translation by Ernst Robert Curtius of The
Waste Land had appeared as early as 192,7 in Die mm Stbwehyr
fjtndscbau\ but of this no influence is perceptible. After the war
translations came in a rush, mostly published in periodicals, with
Kurt Heinrich Hansen, Hans Hennecke and Ursula Clemen in the
forefront. Nora Wydenhruck's translation of The Dry Salvages ap-
peared in 1946 in the July number of Atlantis^ her Mord in der
Kathedrak followed in 1947 and her VitrQmrMte in 1948, She also
translated The Cocktail Party, while Rudolf Alexander Schroder
(p. 278) published Pamilienkomwit (this together with Peter Suhr-
kamp) and Der Mord im Dom (1947). The translations of W. H.
Auden did not begin till 1950, when Kurt Hemrich Hansen's
rendering of The Age of Anxiety as Das Zeifalter dffr Anjyt appeared
with a preface by Gottfried Bcnn. Holthuscn's relation to Auden
may be traced in Labyrintkiscfa Jabre\ e.g. in the poem lUmmdund
Bfat, which is in the metre of Audcn's ode SJMM. Actually the poets
who joined the new movement (die Nw/Sner as opposed to £*
Traditionalttieri) were demonstrating the truth of Otto smr Linde's
phonetic conception of stress (p* 155); what does result in
EKotismitt Is th^t the natural Germanic frm l^mfiiHmg is estab-
lished. There is also a more systematic use of Stmphmmmhtingung
or strophic synaphe(iX which is a marked feature of Rilke's verse*
Reversed accent too ^An &$$ ktwk&smht R//, Kn&tldts SeHeksdf