Michael Hamburger

Michael Hamburger (22 March 1924 – 7 June 2007) was a German-born British translator and poet. He came to Britain in 1933 as a refugee from Nazism. Quotes The ploughman ploughs, the fisherman dreams of fish;Aloft, the sailor, through a world of ropesGuides tangled meditations, feverishWith memories of girls forsaken, hopesOf brief reunions, new discoveries,Past rum consumed, rum promised, rum potential. Being pre-eminently a moralist, he needed a medium that enabled him to illustrate a moral insight as briefly and vividly as possible. Being an artist and sensualist, he needed a medium that was epigrammatic or aphoristic, but allowed him scope for fantasy and for that element of suggestiveness which he considered essential to beauty. Introduction to his translation, Twenty Prose Poems by Charles Baudelaire Interview with Lidia Vianu It is impossible for a poet to characterize his own work. From other people I gather that I am a gloomy poet, if not a tragic one. I was invited to Romania at least once, but was warned that I should not be free to travel where I pleased in the country, but should be more or less confined to the Writers' Union. Because I ceased long ago to be an urban poet and feel claustrophobic in literary conferences, I could not accept such an invitation. Translation came naturally to me because as a child I was translated from Germany to Britain. I suppose that I am a very serious poet – except for satirical verse, which I have also been compelled to write, though much of it may be inferior to my more serious poems – perhaps because I am not playful enough by nature, and even my satirical or polemical verse is not entertaining. About He was out of tune with what a younger generation of poets were writing, and railed against the shallowness and commercialisation of the modern world, from his fastness: a farmhouse surrounded by orchards in Middleton, Suffolk. * Obituary in The Guardian External links Entry at Poetry Archive Obituary in The Guardian Category:Poets from Germany Category:Poets from England Category:Jews from the United Kingdom Category:Translators from England Category:2007 deaths Category:University College London faculty