D. H. Lawrence: Nimm mein Wort in die Hand. Gedichte, zweisprachig englisch/deutsch. Ausgewählt und übertragen von Werner von Koppenfels. Munich: Lyrik Kabinett, 2018.

• Alison E. Martin

Though he is famous as a novelist, D. H. Lawrence the poet has yet to be discovered by many readers in the German-speaking world. This latest collection of his poetry is by no means the first volume to offer a broad range of his verse in German translation, but it is thematically the most wide-ranging. Intriguingly titled Nimm mein Wort in die Hand – an imperative to its readers both to pick up the book and to engage with the message of Lawrence’s words – it offers a fuller picture of his lyric oeuvre. It includes work ranging from the first poems composed as part of his verse collection Amores (1916), written as Lawrence’s career was ascending towards fame and controversy, to the closing “Phoenix”, which eloquently echoes the symbolism of regeneration depicted on his headstone, which was originally crafted in the French town of Vence where he died.