Yaak Karsunke

Yaak Karsunke Poems

Yaak Karsunke Biography

Yaak Karsunke (born 4 June 1934, Berlin) is a German author and actor. The son of an engineer and the procurer of a publishing house, he grew up in the borough of Pankow. In 1949 his family moved to Friedenau. Here Karsunke attended Gymnasium (high school). In 1953 he passed the Abitur and studied jurisprudence for three semesters. From 1955 to 1957 he studied drama at the Max-Reinhardt-Schule, today known as the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts. From 1957 to 1964 he made a living doing odd jobs. In 1964, Karsunke moved to Munich, where he became involved with the Außerparlamentarische Opposition, becoming a spokesman for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1968. Along with other leftist authors, he founded the literary review Kürbiskern, for which he served as editor in chief from 1965 until August 1968, when he resigned as a protest against the Soviet repression of the Prague Spring.)

The Best Poem Of Yaak Karsunke

Elderly couple (after Sebald Beham)

for Ingrid

in an engraving from 1543
as big as the palm of your hand
you see them standing
a woman & a man
not so slim no longer young
the inventors of love

the tapping of the fig tree's leaves
rubbing against one another
kept Eve awake
& when Adam took the apple he saw
her breasts with new
eyes before his
parting lips

(soon after both were
much moved by knowledge)

the snake darts
out of paradise & glides
smoothly towards you & me -
let's go into the garden
& adorn
its altar with pomegranates

Translation: Nicholas Grindell

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