





































 Rennert/White 63

Three Poems by Marie Luise Kaschnitz 
 

Translation and Commentary: Hal H. Rennert 
 

Musical Setting: John D. White 
 
 

 
Listening Image 
 
Recorded 
The pounding of the pistons 
The rolling wheels 
Ringing of the telephone 
Agnus Dei 
Fleeting steps 
Barking dogs in the suburb 
Music box 
Adding the sound  
From the chest of a man 
His wheezing  
Getting shorter 
Breaths of air 
Superimposed 
His memories  
Of certain ocean breakers 
Which I let dominate 
Powerfully up the cliffs 
While his breath 
Getting smaller extinguishes. 
 
 
 
  



64 Delos

Hörbild 
 
Aufgenommen 
Das Stampfen der Kolben 
Die rollenden Räder 
Telefongeklingel 
Agnus Dei 
Gerufene Namen 
Flüchtende Schritte 
Hundegebell in der Vorstadt 
Orchestrion 
Dazu das Geräusch 
Aus der Brust eines Mannes 
Seine keuchenden 
Immer kürzeren 
Atemzüge 
Eingeblendet 
Seine Erinnerung 
An eine gewisse Brandung 
Die ich überhandnehmen lasse 
Mächtig felsaufwärts 
Während sein Atem 
Klein wird erlischt. 
 
 
 
  



 Rennert/White 65



66 Delos



 Rennert/White 67



68 Delos

No Magic Incantation 
 
Some replies 
Could be opposed 
Decapitating the young 
Black walnut by the storm 
And all those other 
More frightful Gorgon heads. 
 
No magic incantation 
No gesture 
Words written long ago 
I will enter 
In my text 
 
Such as from 
Thomas Aquinas 
Because evil exists 
God exists. 
 
Kein Zauberspruch 
 
Einiges wäre  
Entgegenzuhalten 
Der jungen von Sturm 
Geköpften Schwarznuß 
Und allen viel schrecklicheren 
Gorgonhäuptern. 
 
Kein Zauberspruch 
Keine Geste 
Worte einmal aufgeschrieben 
Will ich meinen 
Text einfügen. 
 
Etwa diese 
Aus Aquino 
Weil das Böse ist 
Ist Gott.      



 Rennert/White 69



70 Delos



 Rennert/White 71

         Birds 
 
Birds – a couple still 
But how unequal now 
One greedily pecking 
Life’s smallish leftover 
Among the warm leaves 
The other flown off 
Its clear shadow 
Gliding across the snowy field 
Circling thrice 
Each time paler yet 
No cry from the clouds 
No feather descending. 
 
 
         Vögel 
 
Ein Paar Vögel noch immer 
Aber wie ungleich jetzt 
Einer gierig aufpickend 
Den kleinen Lebensrest 
Im warmen Laub 
Der andere entflogen 
Sein klarer Schatten 
Gleitet übers Schneefeld 
Zieht Kreise drei 
Jder ein wenig blasser 
Kein Schrei aus den Wolken 
Keine Feder herab. 
 
 
  



72 Delos



 Rennert/White 73



74 Delos

Commentary:  
Each of the three poems was first published in Kein Zauberspruch (1972), one 
of five volumes of poetry by Marie Luise Kaschnitz during her life-time (1901-
1974). The poem “Vögel” (Birds) was actually written in the early 1960s, shortly 
after her husband, the art historian Guido von Weinberg-Kaschnitz, had died in 
1958. One literary critic refers to this poem perceptively as a secular requiem 
(“ein weltliches Requiem”). Although there is a strong biographical element in 
Kaschnitz’s writing, her range of themes is much deeper and wider. She 
shares with other German and other European writers the classical humanism 
of mid-twentieth century and straddles a complex and enlightened 
Weltanschauung as, for example, her friendships to Theodor Adorno, Paul 
Celan, Dolf Sternberger and Ingeborg Bachmann demonstrate. My fellow 
colleagues in the field of German Studies in North America are familiar with her 
famous short story, “Das dicke Kind” (The Fat Child), if for no other reason 
than it’s ubiquitous appearance in undergraduate textbooks. A selection of her 
poems from four collections appearing in German-speaking countries in 
Europe between 1957 and 1972 were included in The Selected Later Poems 
of Marie Luise Kaschnitz, translated by Lisel Mueller, Princeton University 
Press, 1980. 
 
John White and I have collaborated on literary-musical projects for over thirty 
years. The Kaschnitz Lieder project grew out of a larger prospective 
monograph on the poetry and short prose of Kaschnitz and my research at the 
German Literature Archive in Marbach, Germany, where her literary estate, 
that is, her manuscripts, letters and papers (Nachlass) is located. I took up 
John White’s challenge – with an eye and ear to possible successful musical 
settings – selecting ten of Kaschnitz’s best poems from an oeuvre of over one 
thousand published and several dozen unpublished poems for translation. The 
three poems in the current issue of Delos represent an additional refinement of 
this challenge. 
 




