Georg Trakl

A poem by Trakl inscribed on a plaque in Mirabell Garden, Salzburg.

Georg Trakl (February 3, 1887 – November 3, 1914) was a pre-eminent Austrian poet. Image File history File links 0trackl. ... Image File history File links 0trackl. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1200x1600, 478 KB) Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Georg Trakl ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1200x1600, 478 KB) Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Georg Trakl ... February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ... November 3 is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 58 days remaining. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ...

Life and work

Trakl was born and lived the first 18 years of his life in Salzburg. His father, Tobias, was a dealer in hardware, while his mother, Maria, was a housewife with strong interests in art and music. Flag of Salzburg Salzburg (population 145,000 in 2005) is a city in western Austria and the capital of the federal state of Salzburg (population 520,000 in 2003). ...

Trakl attended a Catholic elementary school, although his parents were Protestants. He matriculated in 1897 at the Salzburg Staatsgymnasium, where he studied Latin, Greek, and mathematics. Around 1904, Trakl began to write poetry. Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Euclid, detail from The School of Athens by Raphael. ... 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Poetry (from Ancient Greek: (poiéo/poió) = I create / I make / I do / I cause) is traditionally a written art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ...

After dropping out of high school in 1905, Trakl worked for a pharmacist for three years and decided to pursue pharmacy as a career. It was at this time that he experimented with playwriting, but his two short plays, All Souls' Day and Fata Morgana, failed onstage. 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is someone who writes dramatic literature or drama. ...

In 1908, Trakl moved to Vienna to study pharmacy, and fell in with a group of local artists and bohemians who helped him to publish some of his poems. Trakl's father died in 1910, shortly before Trakl received his pharmacy certificate; thereafter, Trakl enlisted in the army for a yearlong stint. His return to civilian life in Salzburg was a disaster, and he reenlisted, serving as a pharmacist at a hospital in Innsbruck. There he also met the local artistic community, which recognized his budding talent. Ludwig von Ficker, the editor of the journal Der Brenner, became his patron: he regularly printed Trakl's work and endeavored to find him a publisher to produce a collection of poems. The result of these efforts was Gedichte (Poems), published by Kurt Wolff in Vienna in the summer of 1913. Ficker also brought Trakl to the attention of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who anonymously provided him with a sizable stipend so that he could concentrate on his writing. 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about the city and federal state in Austria. ... Bohemians are inhabitants of Bohemia, Czech Republic. ... 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... Innsbruck City Center Innsbruck and Nordkette from south Innsbruck (population 120,000) is a city in western Austria, and the capital of the Tyrol province. ... Vienna (German: Wien ; Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian: Beč, Czech: Vídeň, Hungarian: Bécs, Romanian: Viena, Romani: Bech or Vidnya, Russian: Вена, Slovak: Viedeň, Slovenian: Dunaj) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (IPA: ) (April 26, 1889 – April 29, 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who contributed several ground-breaking works to contemporary philosophy, primarily on the foundations of logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of mind. ...

On the outbreak of World War I, Trakl was sent as a medical official to attend to soldiers in Galicia (comprising portions modern-day Ukraine and Poland). His suffered frequent bouts of depression, exacerbated by the horror of caring for severely wounded soldiers. During one such incident in Grodek, Trakl had to steward the recovery of some ninety soldiers wounded in the fierce campaign against the Russians. He tried to shoot himself from the strain, but his comrades prevented him. Hospitalized in Krakow and placed under close observation, Trakl lapsed into deeper depression and wrote to Ficker for advice. Ficker convinced him to contact Wittgenstein. On receiving Trakl's note, Wittgenstein went to the hospital, but found that Trakl had committed suicide from an overdose of cocaine three days before. Combatants Allies: Serbia, Russia, France, Romania, Belgium, British Empire, United States, Italy, and others Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire Casualties Military dead: 5 million Civilian deaths: 3 million Total of dead: 8 million Military dead: 4 million Civilian deaths: 3 million Total dead: 7 million The First... Depression, or, more properly, a depressed mood, may in ordinary English refer to a state of melancholia, unhappiness or sadness. ... Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of willfully ending ones own life. ... This article is about the drug cocaine. ...

Critical appraisal

Trakl's richly symbolic poetry stands at the forefront of the literary arm of the Austro-German expressionist movement. On White II by Wassily Kandinsky, 1923. ...

Online texts

• Ten poems (English) by George Trakl
• Twenty Poems, trans. by James Wright and Robert Bly - PDF file of a 1961 translation, listed in Bibliography
• The Complete Writings of Georg Trakl in English - translations by Wersch and Jim Doss

Bibliography

Selected titles:

• Der Herbst des Einsamen (The Autumn of The Lonely), 1920
• Gesang des Abgeschiedenen (Song of The Departed), 1933

In English:

• DECLINE: 12 POEMS trans. Michael Hamburger, Guido Morris / Latin Press, 1952
• Twenty Poems of George Trakl, trans. James Wright & Robert Bly, The Sixties Press, 1961
• Selected Poems, Christopher Middleton, Jonathan Cape, 1968
• Georg Trakl: A Profile, ed. Frank Graziano, Logbridge-Rhodes, 1983
• The Golden Goblet: Selected Poems of Georg Trakl, 1887-1914, trans. Jamshid Shirani & A. Maziar, Ibex Publishers, 1994
• Song of the West: Selected Poems, trans. Robert Firmage, North Point Press, 1988
• Autumn Sonata: Selected Poems of Georg Trakl, trans. Daniel Simko, Asphodel Press, 1998

See also

• List of Austrians
• List of Austrian writers

-1... This is a list of Austrian writers and poets. ...

External links

• Brief, general overview
• A site with many links, in German only
• Hearing Heidegger and Saussure by Elmer G. Wiens: Trakl's poem, "A Winter Evening," in Heidegger's theory of language.
• George Trakl | In Konvergencias

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Georg Trakl