Art of Topiary by Jan Wagner and translated by David Keplinger

This is poetry from Germany.

Art of Topiary by Jan Wagner translated by David Keplinger is published by Milkweed Editions. This is a Book originally written in German. This was published in 2017.0 and has the ISBN of 9.781571314963E12.

Art of Topiary, by Jan Wagner and translated by David Keplinger from German, brings German poetry into English through topiary, craft, and Jan Wagner’s formal intelligence, where wit and careful trimming become a way to think. The metadata gives the reader a doorway, but the real value is what happens once the poem begins making its own weather. I would read it for garden, shape, craft, and the delight of seeing a poem know exactly how artificial nature can be, not as a fixed lesson about a nation, period, or school. The best entry point is still the poem itself: the line that catches, the image that refuses to explain itself, the feeling that arrives before paraphrase. Art of Topiary belongs in the translated poetry library because it shows contemporary German poetry as playful, exacting, and genuinely pleasurable.

If you’d like to see international poetry continue and gain traction, consider requesting this work from your local library, or purchasing it from places like Open Books (a poetry only bookstore), Asterism Books (an independent press distributor), or bookshop.org to connect you with your local bookstores.

Check out more of the always in-progress translated poetry index here.