Michael Hamburger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael Hamburger OBE (born 22 March 1924) is a noted British translator, poet, and academic, known in particular for his translations of Friedrich Hölderlin, Paul Celan, and W. G. Sebald from German, and his work as a literary critic. He himself has commented unhappily on the habit that reviewers have of greeting publication of his own poetry with a ritualised 'Michael Hamburger, better known as a translator...'. He has often commented on the literary life: the first edition of his autobiography (see below) came out with the title A Mug's Game, a quotation from T. S Eliot whch tells its own story.

He was born in Berlin into a Jewish family who left for the UK in 1933, and settled in London. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. He was in the British Army from 1943 to 1947. After that he completed his degree, and wrote for a time. He took a position at University College London in 1951, and then at the University of Reading in 1955. There followed many further academic positions in the UK and the USA.

He has published translations of many of the most important German language writers, particularly poets. His work has been recognised by numerous awards, including the Aristeion Prize in 1990, and the Order of the British Empire in 1992.

The Truth of Poetry (1968) is a major work of criticism. His Collected Poems, 1941-1994 (1995) drew on around twenty collections.

He lives in Suffolk, and appeared as himself as a character in W. G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn.

[edit] References

• String of Beginnings: Intermittent Memoirs 1924 to 1954 (Skoob Books Publishing, 1991), his autobiography, edited by Lucien Jenkins
• Michael Hamburger in Conversation with Peter Dale by Peter Dale (ISBN 0-9532841-1-5)