Today, August 31st 2021, would be Wolfgang Hilbig’s 80th birthday. German literati are celebrating Hilbig’s work all year long. See this website (for German speakers):
ECP Books is thrilled to announce that it will be publishing his very first volume of poetry, abwesenheit, in English translation. This will be the first poetry collection by Hilbig in English, and for Hilbig fans will show the clear connection between his lyric voice and his prose. Translator Skip Rhudy has provided the book’s title poem in the German and his translation, as a preview:
Originally published as “Wolfgang Hilbig – Werke – Gedichte”
© 2008 S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main
Translation © 2021 Skip Rhudy