What Remains: The Collected Poems of Hannah Arendt translated by Samantha Rose Hill with Genese Grill
Philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote two of the last century’s most acute analyses of politics and history, The Origins of Totalitarianism and Eichmann in Jerusalem. Quietly, privately, she also wrote poetry. The translators of the most complete English language collection of her poems argue that through poetry, Arendt “found a new vocabulary, rich in metaphor, that empowered her to think the world anew.”
What Remains organizes Arendt’s 60some surviving poems in roughly chronological order with the original German text on left hand pages facing the new translations on the right. She wrote mostly in rhymes; her translators occasionally struggle to find an appropriate English rhyme but usually defer to sense over sound. Arendt’s verses address the usual theme of love as well as our contingency on forces we cannot control while celebrating “the beautiful joy of life.”
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