Rainer Brambach, one of the most widely appreciated Swiss poets in the
1950s and '60s, was notorious for walking to the beat of his own drum,
denying convention and standing his ground against popular styles and
trends. He grew up in Basel and left school at the age of fourteen to
become a manual laborer. He spent much of World War II in prison and in
labor camps, an experience which greatly influenced his writing. After
the war, Brambach began to make his name as a poet. Recognition and
awards notwithstanding, Brambach remained an outsider in the literary
world and lived for many years in poverty.
Marked by his disregard for material values, a profound engagement with
the landscape of the Upper Rhine, and a lasting commitment to humanity,
Brambach's poems are direct, unadorned, and free of pomp or ideology.
His quiet images conjure up landscapes, small rural scenes, and
interiors of bars and cafes. Brambach was, above all, an observer whose
poems provide insights of deceptive simplicity that form a poetic
essence confirming the significance of this author's voice. This
collection of poems, masterfully translated by noted writer and poet
Esther Kinsky, represents the first major English translation of a
significant European poet.