Rubble Flora by Volker Braun and translated by Karen Leeder, David Constantine

This is poetry from Germany.

Rubble Flora by Volker Braun translated by Karen Leeder, David Constantine is published by Seagull Books. This is a Book originally written in German. This was published in 2014.0 and has the ISBN of 9.780857422187E12.

Volker Braun’s Rubble Flora, translated from German by Karen Leeder, David Constantine, brings poetry connected to Germany into English through rubble, flora, political memory, and stubborn growth. I would not stop at the biographical or national frame, even when those contexts matter. The better entrance is through the poem’s pressure: the image that will not sit still, the phrase that feels slightly denser than ordinary speech, the moment where feeling outruns explanation. This description should help a reader know why the book belongs on the shelf without pretending the book has been solved in advance. Rubble Flora feels useful for readers who want translated poetry to widen not only what they know, but how they listen.

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.