Mascha Kaléko
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Mascha Kaléko, born Golda Malka Aufen on June 7th 1907 in Krenau (today Chrzanow), Austria (today Poland); died January 21st 1975 in Zürich) was a Jewish German language poet.
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[edit] Biography
Her family moved from Galicia to Germany after World War I.
1928 she married the Hebrew teacher Saul Aaron Kaléko. From 1929 on, she published poetry presenting the daily life of the common people in the newspapers Vossische Zeitung and Berliner Tageblatt. In her poetry that was positively reviewed by Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse and Alfred Polgar she catches the atmosphere of Berlin in the 1920’s. She attained fame and frequented places like the "Romanisches Café", where the literary world met, among them Erich Kästner and Kurt Tucholsky.
In January 1933, Rowohlt published her first book with poetry Lyrisches Stenogrammheft, which by May was subject to Nazi book burnings, and two years later her second Das kleine Lesebuch für Grosse, also with the publisher Rowohlt. She managed to emigrate to the USA during the Nazi era in 1938 with her second husband, the composer Chemjo Vinaver, and their little son Evjatar.
While in the USA she lived several places until coming to rest on Minetta Street in New York City's Greenwich Village. Her fifth floor walkup apartment on Minetta Street was a safe haven she always remembered fondly. Mascha was the family's breadwinner writing texts for advertisement. Their hopes of a possible career in the field of film music were crushed and the family returned to New York after a short intermission in Hollywood.
1956 she returned for the first time to Berlin. Four years later she was supposed to receive the Fontane prize, which she declined since it should have been handed over by a former Nazi official.
Still in 1960 she moved to Israel since her husband, researching on Hassidic singing, had better working conditions there. Mascha lacked knowledge of Hebrew and was thus completely isolated.
Her work has been compared to Erich Kästner and Ringelnatz.
[edit] Quote
From the poem Schweigen:
Mein schönstes Gedicht?
Ich schrieb es nicht.
Aus tiefsten Tiefen stieg es.
Ich schwieg es.
Translation:
My most beautiful poem?
I didn't write it.
From the deepest depths it rose.
I kept it silent.
The poem Pihi:
Vom Vogel Pihi hab ich einst gelesen,
Dem Wundertier im Lande der Chinesen.
Er hat nur einen Fittich: Stets in Paaren
Sieht man am Horizont der Pihi Scharen.
Zu zweien nur kann sich das Tier erheben;
Im Singular bleibt es am Boden kleben.
- Dem Pihi gleich, gekettet an das Nest,
Ist meine Seele, wenn du mich verläßt.
Translation:
I once read of the Pihi bird,
The mythical animal in the land of the Chinese.
It only has one wing: always in pairs
One sees flocks of Pihi on the horizon.
Only in twos can the animal lift off;
Alone it sticks to the ground.
-Like the Pihi, chained to the nest,
Is my soul, if you leave me.
[edit] Works
- Das Lyrische Stenogrammheft. Verse vom Alltag (1933, reprint 1956)
- Das kleine Lesebuch für Große. Gereimtes und Ungereimtes, Verse (1934)
- Verse für Zeitgenossen (1945)
- Der Papagei, die Mamagei und andere komische Tiere (1961)
- Verse in Dur und Moll (1967)
- Das himmelgraue Poesiealbum der M.K (1968)
- Wie's auf dem Mond zugeht (1971)
- Hat alles seine zwei Schattenseiten (1973)
Published posthumously:
- Feine Pflänzchen. Rosen, Tulpen, Nelken und nahrhaftere Gewächse (1976)
- Der Gott der kleinen Webfehler (1977)
- In meinen Träumen lautet es Sturm. Gedichte und Epigramme aus dem Nachlaß.(1977)
- Horoskop gefällig? (1979)
- Heute ist morgen schon gestern (1980)
- Tag und Nacht Notizen (1981)
- Ich bin von anno dazumal (1984)
- Der Stern, auf dem wir leben (1984)
[edit] References
- Andreas Nolte: "Mir ist zuweilen so als ob das Herz in mir zerbrach". Leben und Werk Mascha Kalékos im Spiegel ihrer sprichwörtlichen Dichtung. Lang-Verlag 2003. ISBN 3-03910-095-5
