Nelly Sachs: Poems For the Fugitive

Funny, when I was looking for info on Rose Auslander I kept coming across Pictures of Nelly Sachs, but had no idea who she was. And now today, being the anniversary of her death, I've learned she was born a Jew in Berlin, 1891; a writer of short stories, initially, it was what initiated a correspondence with Swedish writer, Selma Lagerlof, who became the 1st woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1909. 

That relationship saved her life. 2 weeks before Nelly was due to be sent to a forced labour camp, Selma called upon the intervention of the Swedish royal family to save her & her mother. They left Berlin on the last available flight; arriving in Sweden for the next chapter of their life. 

Living in a one-room apartment, keeping them both by translating, they survived. When her mother died, Nelly's mental health collapsed into paranoia & delusions; seeing vapour trails in the sky in the form of a pair of scissors - then forming a swastika, she would be convinced she was being spied on by the enemy. She had to be hospitalized, but wrote throughout her ordeal; coming to poetry relatively late in life; it was only in her 50s that she became fully fledged as a poet. 

Like Rose Auslander, Nelly, too was a friend of poet Paul Celan, who suffered a great deal from depression before finally taking his own life. 

           

I learned that Rose Auslander suffered from what is known now as 'Survivor's guilt', and I wonder if that was something that weighed upon the sensitive nature of Nelly Sachs. 

 

She could hardly believe how she, the immigrant, could jointly win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966, with Israeli writer, Shmuel Yosef Agnon. In accepting the award, she stated that while Shmuel had represented Israel, 'I represent the tragedy of the Jewish people'. The real testimony of her capacity to carry suffering & bear no ill will; to use poetry to process pain, and foster forgiveness, was in her being awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, in 1965. Again, her speech is poignant & touching: 'In spite of all the horrors of the past, I believe in You.' 

                           
    




        

I found a fantastic blog dedicated to her memory, with many translations of her poetry, by Andrew Shanks - click on 'Readings' - to savour her unique gift (and his!): http://www.nellysachs-translations.org.uk/index.html