Les A. Murray (1938–2019)

This collection was my introduction to Australian poet Les Murray. It features a selection of his work with German translations by Margot Lehbert on facing pages. Even though English is my native language, there were times when it was helpful to see how the translator, who had the benefit of explanations from Murray, rendered particularly challenging phrases. Murray’s poetry is tied to the Australian landscape, but he is no sentimental pastoralist, finding place for machines and convicts in his depiction of how the last continent was tamed.Typically for lyric poetry, the language is compact, the words chosen at time arcane. But when a poem unfolded itself to me — sometimes after the third or fourth reading — it offered keen observation and hard-won insight.
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