A Poetic Chronicle of HistoryThis edition collects the poems and poem-translations of B. K. Tragelehn in three volumes. For forty years, from 1957 to 1997, he directed plays at many German theatres (first in the GDR, and since 1987, after several professional bans, also in the FRG), often plays by Shakespeare and other authors of his time, which he translated himself, plays by Molière, which he translated together with U. Ludvik, as well as plays by Heiner Müller, whose friend he was, and by Brecht, whose student he was. Thus many poems are connected with theatre work, e.g. dedicated to actors. The collection of poems from 1956-1982, the first volume, could only be published in Frankfurt am Main. Almost nothing had been printed in the GDR. The second volume collects the poems from 1982-2007. The third volume collects all translations: from ancient poets like Ovid to Giordano Bruno to Adam Mickievicz [according to interlinear versions] and to poets of the 20th century like W. H. Auden and W. C. Williams. The whole is a personal chronicle of the history of the 20th century in its second half. The editor Gerhard Ahrens helps with notes across the thresholds of East and West and of time gaps. "One will be able to use these poems, which come from afar, for a long time to come. "Martin Zingg on "NÖSPL", Basler Zeitung, 07.08.1982 "... Enlightenment as recollection and where this remains blind, new development, step by step, into the realm that the poem has set itself the task of opening up. I consider this volume of Tragelehn's poems to be exemplary. "Helmut Heissenbüttel, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 14/15.08.1982.