Wer lebt

Poetry. Translated from the German by Caroline Wilcox Reul. In this bilingual edition, Borchers, unafraid and comfortable in her skin, confronts the serious quandaries of existence. The book's six sections highlight her penchant for stylistic experimentation, which ranges from sophisticated, subtle political commentary to inventive rhyme and playful personal narratives. Borchers' forty-year tenure as an editor is evident in her authoritative voice, which, even as it boldly leads the reader into fraught territory, remains always affable and open. Elisabeth Borchers never soars. Earth is her home, and she is reluctant to leave it. In her poem 'Refusal to Testify' she writes, 'Later, much later / I will bear witness to / what I don't know.' For now--in a collection called, simply, WHO LIVES--she is content to explore what she does know: the 'reliable things, ' the moment 'already over, ' the 'house that holds / the warmth and cold, ' the 'blinding poverty' of memory. Her words accumulate like snow, deceptively innocent, as they transform the familiar into the new. 'You know what I'm talking about, ' she says; thanks to these fine translations by Caroline Wilcox Reul, we do.--Gary Miranda