Geoffrey Lehmann

Fresh, beautiful new translations of one of the most important poets of all time, publishing in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Rainer Maria Rilke's birth. Rilke is one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, revered throughout the world. Geoffrey Lehmann has selected fifty of Rilke's finest poems from the two volumes, entitled New Poems, that are the center of gravity of his achievement. Lehmann's refined ear and perfect mastery of English verse form give his renderings of Rilke a precision and poise that are equal to that of the German originals. On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Rilke's death a master poet lives anew.

‘For my first ten years I grew up in Lavender Bay with the smell of salt water, in houses facing the grey curved eye of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There was a distant rumble, like thunder, when trains went across.’ This is a lyrical and honest memoir of a poet’s life in Sydney. From Lavender Bay to Lindfield, Geoff Lehmann tells the story of his life as a poet, tax lawyer, member of the Sydney Push, single father to three small children and finally, a happily married man who returns to poetry writing and translation. His life and work crosses with some of the leading cultural figures of the twentieth century and beyond – Les Murray, Judith Wright, Christopher Brennan, Clive James. He traces the contours of his own life and his family history, and the contours of particular slice of Sydney.

This substantial volume, Poems 1957-2013, contains all of the poetry written by Geoffrey Lehmann considered by the poet to be worthy of inclusion. He has taken the prerogative of the mature artist looking back to revise poems, sometimes substantially, and to restore lines and passages he had removed from earlier versions. Displaying the breadth and depth of his poetry, Lehmann explores human nature in settings as diverse as ancient Rome and rural New South Wales, from searing satire to the domestic life of a family. This is Geoffrey Lehmann's second volume of collected poems: in this book the span is dazzling; the poetry a major literary vessel from a highly awarded writer.