Der Gott der Landminen

"These songs lead over dirt roads / & highways, cross lonely seas / & climb mountains, cross skies / & underworlds of neon honkytonk,/ Wherever the blues dares to travel." Yusef Komunyakaa's verses are dazzling, ironic and at the same time eerie. He writes like a jazz musician and not only allows African-American history to resonate, but also follows the trail of violence in our world. When the contracts of the god of landmines "arrive already signed", "there is nothing left for us to say, / except 'Please, have mercy, let's go'." For the first time in German, a comprehensive selection of works by one of the most original US poets in a brilliant translation by Mirko Bonné.