theodor kramer

I couldn't find the cover of Theodor Kramer's only collection of poems in English! "Love in London" (Ariadne) Who knows why there's no more of him available!

Kramer's poems reflect the changing moods of an exiled German-speaking writer in response to the traumas faced before, during and after World War II. (After Hitler annexed Austria in March 1938, several well-known Austrian writers took flight to England. Most of them continued writing in their native language).

here, an ironic sample of Kramer's seal:

THEY REPRINT MY POEMS AGAIN IN POSTWAR VIENNA

They reprint my poems now in postwar Vienna;

it's like I've suddenly got a twin-ghost penner

who's growing in stature in some surreal way,

while the real one here lives in decay.

He grows and hardly suffers hardships bad;

but I'm in need (an old chap looking sad!)

of someone now to look after me all the time,

and show some affection for a bloke like I'm,

or else I'll suddenly fade out, I fear.

But who then knows what to me happened here?

And those who know they simply could't care less;

my work collects-I'm soon passé, I guess.

**Translation by Fritz Brainin and Jorg Thunecke**