Shatter the Bell in My Ear: Selected Poems of Christine Lavant

Poetry. Translated from the German by David Chorlton in a bilingual edition. "Writing sometimes in rhyme, sometimes in free verse, Lavant employed directness in her language. I have chosen more of the free verse poems to translate and when there is rhyme I find it preferable to hold on to tone and meaning than attempting to replicate the echoing sounds. The use of sun and moon and stars would easily become a cliché were it not for the unusual slant in the work. So strong was Lavant's connection to the commonplace elements that moon and stars become symbols illuminating her particular, troubled road to Heaven. Even glancing at first lines in several of the poems here displays this tendency: 'The moon's halo was never so large... I hear the heavy moon approaching... Ever closer to the Milky Way's edge... The moon's signal light.'"—David Chorlton