Gottfried Benn

[kay]

I thought to make a thread about Gottfried Benn since he is one of my favourite poets at the moment (besides Hölderlin). If you like you can append a bio of him here (or I'll do it another day dont have much time now)..for now I'd only give two of my favourite poems (in German for now sorry- will also look for English translations later!)...

Dennoch die Schwerter halten
Der soziologische Nenner,
der hinter Jahrtausenden schlief,
heißt: ein paar große Männer
und die litten tief.

Heißt: ein paar schweigende Stunden
in Sils-Maria-Wind,
Erfüllung ist schwer von Wunden,
wenn es Erfüllungen sind.

Heißt: ein paar sterbende Krieger
gequält und schattenblaß,
sie heute und morgen der Sieger -:
warum erschufst du das?

Heißt: Schlangen schlagen die Hauer
das Gift, den Biß, den Zahn,
die Ecce-homo-Schauer
dem Mann in Blut und Bahn -

heißt: so viel Trümmer winken:
die Rassen wollen Ruh,
lasse dich doch versinken
dem nie Endenden zu -

und heißt dann: schweigen und walten,
wissend, daß sie zerfällt,
dennoch die Schwerter halten
vor die Stunde der Welt.

Nur zwei Dinge


Durch so viel Formen geschritten,
durch Ich und Wir und Du,
doch alles blieb erlitten
durch die ewige Frage: wozu?
Das ist eine Kinderfrage.
Dir wurde erst spaet bewusst,
es gibt nur eines: ertrage
- ob Sinn, ob Sucht, ob Sage -
dein fernbestimmtes: Du musst.

Ob Rosen, ob Schnee, ob Meere,
was alles erbluehte, verblich,
es gibt nur zwei Dinge: die Leere
und das gezeichnete Ich.

Gottfried Benn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (heres an article about him in English too)...

p.s. I also aspire to work/make myself independant in this field (literature) and it irks me that the left seems to have "monopolized" it...yet also the right doesnt do much to change that, they have left this field up to the others and concentrate on other things- yet if they want men of such a format as Benn or Spengler in their midst, in the future, then they should be more productive there...and it is about time I say- I see a new generation coming soon there, also a new paradigm- after the decadent age (that still was good in the first half of the 20th cen.) it went down and down- up to such a degree that art is largely represented by (tecnically and creatively imcompetent) non-art(ists), by pesudo idiots, by greedy self-centred "cultural managers" who hop on the train of mediocre society "topics" like "jews, homos, "disgust" and faked multicultultural stuff" [having studied many foreign languages myself I can also say that most leftists dont know shit about most of those other cultures that they so praise, yet rather "press" their own PC prejudice upon them)- no one is actually intersted in that crap...but I think that after that exaggerated decadence will have rotted away in its own convulsions a new age centred on myths and very clear simplicity will emerge again- a quasi Homeric, heroic age...

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by kay

p.s. I also aspire to work/make myself independant in this field (literature) and it irks me that the left seems to have "monopolized" it...

They did not "monopolize" literature in any sense, because it is impossible. However, they indeed monopolized (withot quotattion marks this time) the modern-day boob-hatcheries commonly known as universities or, to be more precise, their departments of humanities.

Good literature of lasting quality will always find readers outside from these leftist circles.

[Marcus Marulus]

By the way, was Gottfried Benn the one who invented the term "internal emigration"?

[kay]

I don't know but it would look like him...every true artist would have to internally imigrate in the face of an inhumane regime after all...communism or Nazism both were quite unnatural after all...

[kay]

p.s.: about "monopolizing": no, youre right of course: true art cannot be monoploized, but what the leftists do is that they also claim even the media- by whom art is transmitted- for themselves, and that means the *representation* of art itself...Im just soo loath of that, I've had enough of it! The stupid commoners/normal ppl will simply set the things that they will consume in the media, for example on TV etc, equal to their "educated" opinion...thats art for them- and if said art is just about that shit (that I mentioned) then they will buy into it and/or say that "we dont like art"...well, I dont like such art either and I even have studied it!....thats what I meant by "monopolizing"...