Jan Wagner – författare

“Luminous. . . Wisp transforms ordinary objects, animals, landscapes, and historical figures into portals of reflection.”—Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf RepublicA dual-language collection examining impermanence as the source of beauty from one of the most acclaimed contemporary poets writing in German.Over the course of a partnership spanning nearly two decades, poets Jan Wagner and David Keplinger have crafted a distinctly collaborative exchange between original German and American letters. Now, in this masterful dual-language poetry collection, they muse at the constraints of translation, challenging its boundaries while weaving their distinct voices in lyrical call and response. Together, they marvel at what translation can be: a tempered conversation in metered rhyme. From their poetic cross-pollination, ethereal wisps unfurl from everyday objects—a spiral of hair, an iridescent snail’s path, the twist of a tornado’s funnel. Flora and fauna, they discover, act as foliage to veiled, hidden universes. Flamingoes curve into question marks, fishhooks become wedding rings, and Pirelli tires glide into panthers. “She trails a silver-tail / behind herself,” the speaker muses, “something like a falling / star.” Showcasing traditional forms—including ghazal, sonnet, and haiku—Wagner and Keplinger rebel against each fixed container until otherworldly realms emerge. Kaleidoscopic and cyclical, these poems are a feat of literary acrobatics on display, suspending us in surprise and wonder.

Self-Portrait with a Swarm of Bees combines the poet's unerring instinct for the surprising perspective on commonplace objects or events with a mischievous delight in the detail of the absurd. Wagner is a vigilant, yet playful, chronicler of the quotidian, his meticulous handling of image and sound forging a worldly, almost luminous palpability.

Self-Portrait with a Swarm of Bees combines the poet''s unerring instinct for the surprising perspective on commonplace objects or events with a mischievous delight in the detail of the absurd. Wagner is a vigilant, yet playful, chronicler of the quotidian, his meticulous handling of image and sound forging a worldly, almost luminous palpability.

Sollte nicht jeder Schriftsteller Gedichte schreiben, fragt man sich bei der Lektüre dieser Essays und Porträts, und freut sich an der glänzenden Prosa, die so deutlich von der Kunst der Verdichtung, von der sprachlichen Hellhörigkeit des Lyrikers geprägt ist. Mit Eleganz und Belesenheit widmet sich Jan Wagner poetologischen Fragen, zeichnet prägnante und sehr persönliche Kollegenporträts von Whitman und Heym, über Benn und Beckett zu Matthew Sweeney und Simon Armitage. In seiner Lyrik erweist sich Jan Wagner stets als grandioser Geschichtenerzähler; diese Gabe zeigt sich auch in seinen Essays. Der Abstecher in das stinkende Inferno der Hundeschau von Bratislava, die Taschenkontrolle am Flug hafen von Lviv, der Schlagabtausch zwischen Wallace Stevens und Robert Frost - wer würde diese Szenen je wieder vergessen? Um viele wunderbare Anekdoten und Leseanregungen reicher, legt man schließlich die Sandale des Propheten aus den Händen, bereit, für die Lyrik durchs Feuer zu gehen, und durchdrungen von der Gewissheit, dass ein Leben ohne Poesie kein Leben wäre.