Output details

The Possible is Monstrous

The Possible Is Monstrous represents the first collection of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s poetry in English translation. My translations attempt to accurately capture Dürrenmatt’s effortless linguistic movements from epic ballads and exotic forms such as the maqam, to short lyric bursts and personal anecdotes, from socioeconomic critiques of Switzerland and postwar Europe, and reinterpretations of ancient myths, to investigations of modern science and culture. In these poems, according to Peter Rüedi, “Dürrenmatt speaks as Dürrenmatt, a voice we can usually hear only in his later prose.”