[In the following review, Haenicke discusses how the personal is related to the political in Kirsch's Landaufenthalt.]

Among the relatively few lyrical voices to be heard in East Germany, that of Sarah Kirsch is a particularly powerful one. Her first poems appeared in the late sixties; in the early seventies of her work became known to a broader audience when several of her books of poetry appeared in a West German publishing house. The volume Landaufenthalt is a collection of poems many of which were published before. It comprises the poems of an earlier (1967) East German edition with the same title. Some of the poems were previously published in Kirsch's Gedichte (Langewiesche-Brandt, 1969). Several poems in this latest volume, however, appear for the first time in a West German edition.

All of Sarah Kirsch's poems are characterized by an intimate tone, and they always reflect personal impressions which, however, usually relate to her present-day political experiences and those of the immediate past. Thus the description of a train ride through the countryside will be interwoven with thoughts of the political border that cannot be traversed. The barbed wire which marks this border runs unmistakably across the hills and meadows of her nature poems. The enjoyment of the plush green of the summer forest is spoiled by the knowledge of the American defoliation programs during the Vietnam War. Not surprisingly (Kirsch's maiden name is Sarah Bernstein), images of a Jewish cemetery or a report from the Frankfurt trials against Nazi concentration camp guards often form the basis of her most impressive poems.

In spite of the constantly visible references to the political realities, Kirsch's poems are deeply rooted in the scenic beauty of the East German provinces. The forceful intensity of her oneness with nature is mirrored in the numerous poems which depict the lakes, ponds and rivers of her homeland. The recurring symbol of the fish suggests the poet's total immersion in nature, whereas the other most frequent image of the bird, of flight and of gliding through the skies might be induced by the poet's dream-like desire to negate walls, barbed wire and borders.

The volume contains some love poems which rank among the best in postwar literature. Jubilant and tristful at the same time, they display a spectacular and dazzling imagery which immediately reminds one of Else Lasker-Schüler. Landaufenthalt convincingly reflects Sarah Kirsch's poetic attainment, which assures her a position of high distinction in postwar German poetry.