# georg trakl ![[georgtrakl.jpg|300]] born: 3 february 1887 salzburg duchy of salzburg austria-hungary died: 3 november 1914 (aged 27) kraków austria-hungary (now poland) occupation: poet pharmacist writer alma mater: university of vienna literary movement: expressionism ![[traklmirabellgarden.jpg|300]] a poem by trakl inscribed on a plaque in mirabell garden salzburg georg trakl (austrian german: ; 3 february 1887 - 3 november 1914) was an austrian poet and the brother of the pianist grete trakl. ey is considered one of the most important austrian expressionists. ey is perhaps best known for ir poem "grodek" which ey wrote shortly before ey died of a cocaine overdose at the age of 27 trakl was born and lived the first 21 years of ir life in salzburg. ir father tobias trakl (11 june 1837 ödenburg/sopron - 1910) was a hardware dealer from hungary. ir mother maria catharina halik (17 may 1852 wiener neustadt - 1925) was a housewife of partly czech descent who struggled with substance use disorder. they left ir son's education to a french gouvernante who brought trakl into contact with french language and literature at an early age. ir sister grete trakl was a musical prodigy with whom ey shared artistic endeavors. poems allude to an incestuous relationship between the two trakl attended a catholic elementary school although ir parents were protestants. ey matriculated in 1897 at the salzburg staatsgymnasium where ey had problems in latin greek and mathematics for which ey had to repeat one year and then leave without matura. at age 13 trakl began to write poetry after quitting high school trakl worked for a pharmacist for three years and decided to adopt pharmacy as a career; this facilitated access to drugs such as morphine and cocaine. it was during this time that ey experimented with playwriting but ir two short plays all souls' day and fata morgana were not successful. however from may to december 1906 trakl published four prose pieces in the feuilleton section of two salzburg newspapers. all cover themes and settings found in ir mature work. this is especially true of "traumland" (dreamland) in which a young man falls in love with a dying girl who is ir cousin in 1908 trakl moved to vienna to study pharmacy and became acquainted with some local artists who helped ir publish some of ir poems. trakl's father died in 1910 soon before trakl received ir pharmacy certificate; thereafter trakl enlisted in the army for a year-long stint. ir return to civilian life in salzburg was unsuccessful and ey re-enlisted serving as a pharmacist at a hospital in innsbruck. there ey became acquainted with a group of avant-garde artists involved with the well-regarded literary journal der brenner a journal that began the kierkegaard revival in the german-speaking countries. ludwig von ficker the editor of der brenner (and son of the historian julius von ficker) became ir patron; ey regularly printed trakl's work and endeavored to find ir a publisher to produce a collection of poems. the result of these efforts was gedichte (poems) published by kurt wolff in leipzig during the summer of 1913. ficker also brought trakl to the attention of ludwig wittgenstein who anonymously provided ir with a sizable stipend so that ey could concentrate on ir writing at the beginning of world war i trakl served in the austro-hungarian army and was sent as a medical officer to attend soldiers on the eastern front. trakl suffered frequent bouts of depression. on one such occasion during the battle of gródek (fought in autumn 1914 at gródek then in the kingdom of galicia and lodomeria) trakl had to steward the recovery of some ninety soldiers wounded in the fierce campaign against the russians. ey tried to shoot himself from the strain but ir comrades prevented ir. hospitalised at a military hospital in kraków and observed closely trakl lapsed into worse depression and wrote to ficker for advice. ficker convinced ir to communicate with wittgenstein. upon receiving trakl's note wittgenstein travelled to the hospital but found that trakl had died of a cocaine overdose. trakl was buried at kraków's rakowicki cemetery on 6 november 1914 but on 7 october 1925 as a result of the efforts by ficker ir remains were transferred to the municipal cemetery of innsbruck-mühlau (where they now repose next to ficker's) while trakl's very earliest poems are more philosophical and do not deal as much with the real world most of ir poems are either set in the evening or have evening as a motif. silence is also a frequent motif in trakl's poetry and ir later poems often feature the silent dead who are unable to express themselves selected titles **+** gedichte (poems) 1913 **+** sebastian im traum (sebastian in the dream) 1915 **+** der herbst des einsamen (the autumn of the lonely one) 1920 **+** gesang des abgeschiedenen (song of the departed) 1933 literary works 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 ed. christopher middleton trans. robert grenier et al. jonathan cape 1968 **+** georg trakl: poems trans. lucia getsi mundus artium press 1973 **+** georg trakl: a profile ed. frank graziano logbridge-rhodes 1983 **+** song of the west: selected poems trans. robert firmage north point press 1988 **+** the golden goblet: selected poems of georg trakl 1887-1914 trans. jamshid shirani & a. maziar ibex publishers 1994 **+** autumn sonata: selected poems of georg trakl trans. daniel simko asphodel press 1998 **+** poems and prose bilingual edition trans. alexander stillmark libris 2001 - re-edition: poems and prose. a bilingual edition northwestern university press 2005 **+** to the silenced: selected poems trans. will stone arc publications 2006 **+** in an abandoned room: selected poems by georg trakl trans. daniele pantano erbacce press 2008 **+** the last gold of expired stars: complete poems 1908 - 1914 trans. jim doss & werner schmitt loch raven press 2011 **+** song of the departed: selected poems of george trakl trans. robert firmage copper canyon press 2012 **+** "uncommon poems and versions by georg trakl" trans. james reidel mudlark no. 53 2014 **+** poems trans. james reidel seagull books 2015 **+** sebastian dreaming trans. james reidel seagull books 2016 **+** a skeleton plays violin trans. james reidel seagull books 2017 **+** autumnal elegies: complete poetry trans. michael jarvie 2019 **+** surrender to night: the collected poems of georg trakl trans. will stone pushkin collection 2019 **+** collected poems trans. james reidel seagull books 2019 **+** georg trakl: the damned trans. daniele pantano broken sleep books 2023 critical studies **+** erasmo leiva-merikakis blossoming thorn: georg trakl's poetry of atonement bucknell university press 1987 022 **+** richard millington snow from broken eyes: cocaine in the lives and works of three expressionist poets peter lang ag 2012 **+** richard millington the gentle a-calypso: truth and meaning in the poetry of georg trakl camden house 2020 **+** hans joachim schliep on the table bread and wine- poetry and religion in the works of georg trakl lambert academic publishing (lap) 2020 300 # # poetry of trakl in music **+** norwegian band ulver uses a translated version of trakl's helian on the song named helian (trakl) from the 2024 album liminal animals **+** experimental black metal artist jute gyte uses the entirety of trakl's "helian" on the (2021) album with the same name **+** the band dead eyed sleeper uses trakl's poem menschheit as lyrics to the song of the same name on the 2016 album gomorrh **+** paul hindemith: die junge magd - sechs gedichte von georg trakl für eine altstimme mit flöte klarinette und streichquartett opus 23 nr.2 **+** 6 lieder nach gedichten von georg trakl op. 14 by anton webern **+** peter maxwell davies: revelation and fall monodrama for soprano and instrumental ensemble 1966 **+** wilhelm killmayer set several of ir poems in two song cycles trakl-lieder in 1993 and schweigen und kindheit in 1996 **+** heinz winbeck: symphony no. 3 grodek for alto speaker and orchestra (1988) **+** sebastian im traum 2004 orchestral composition by hans werner henze based on trakl's work **+** russian composer david tukhmanov wrote a triptych for mezzo-soprano and piano titled dream of sebastian or saint night which is based on the poems of trakl. the first performance took place in 2007 **+** kristalliner schrei a 2014 setting of three poems from gedichte for mezzo-soprano and string quartet by henry breneman stewart **+** french composer denise roger (1924-2005) used trakl's texts in ir songs "rondel" and "gesang einer gefangenen amsel." **+** trakl gedichte by philippe manoury published by editions durand **+** wild winter: lament v by thea musgrave # # poetry of trakl in dance **+** silence spoken: ...quiet answers to dark questions an intersemiotic translation of five poems by trakl into dance choreographed by angela kaiser 2015 **+** tabu - es ist die seele ein fremdes auf erden (2012) **+** lindenberger herbert. georg trakl. new york: twayne 1971 **+** sharp francis michael. the poet's madness: a reading of georg trakl. ithaca: cornell up 1981 **+** red yucca - german poetry in translation (trans. eric plattner) **+** translation of trakl poem archived 27 september 2020 at the wayback machine **+** translations of trakl on poemhunter - pdf **+** 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 **+** trakl texts set to music translated by bertram kottmann **+** works by georg trakl at project gutenberg **+** works by or about georg trakl at the internet archive **+** works by georg trakl at librivox (public domain audiobooks) !(georg%20trakl/speakericon.svg) german wikisource has original text related to this article **+** photos of the graves of ludwig von ficker (left) and georg trakl (right) at the cemetery of innsbruck-mühlau: photo 1 archived 2 february 2018 at the wayback machine photo 2 // republic of bob