Three Poems by Else Lasker-Schüler: New Translations and Notes

Abstract

Else Lasker-Schüler (11 February 1869 – 22 January 1945) was a German-Jewish author who, besides her eccentric lifestyle, is known for being an Expressionist poet and one of the most influential writers of early twentieth-century German literature. Lasker-Schüler spent most of her life in Berlin where she was well connected within the circles of the Berlin Bohème around 1900. She counted painter Franz Marc, poet Rainer Maria Rilke, poet Peter Hille, and critic Karl Kraus amongst her close friends. Under threat of Nazi persecution, she travelled to Palestine in 1934 and finally settled in Jerusalem in 1937. The outbreak of World War II prevented her return to Europe. In the winter of 1945 she died and was buried in Jerusalem.