New Sea Urchin chapbook:
August Stramm – Curse
August Stramm is now mainly remembered for the poems that he wrote during WWI and were published posthumously as Tropfblut by Walden in 1919. But Stramm’s poem Fluch, also written during WWI, was part of his earlier collection of love poems Du, which was published in 1915. Inspired by Nietzsche, the Futurists, the war and his friendship with Walden, Fluch is a passionate, almost violent love poem. In sentences that consist of no more than a couple of powerful words, at times of a single word and an exclamation mark only, Stramm directs a loud cry of resistance, revolt and self-sacrifice at a godless sky. Fluch is a heartfelt curse and at the same time a passionate cry to be devoured by love. The original German poem was published in an English translation as Curse by Sea Urchin in February-March 2020. Artwork and English translation: Ben Schot. Order now →