The Nobel Prize in Literature 1966
“for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel’s destiny with touching strength”
1/2 of the prize
Sweden
b. 1891
(in Berlin, Germany)
d. 1970
Leonie Nelly Sachs, born in Berlin on December 10, 1891.
As refugee, arrived in Sweden with my mother on May 16, 1940.
Since then living in Stockholm and active as writer and translator.
Biographical Note
Nelly Sachs (1891-1970), daughter of a wealthy manufacturer, grew up in a fashionable area of Berlin. She studied music and dancing and at an early age began writing poetry. After her escape to Sweden in 1940, Miss Sachs took up the study of Swedish and devoted much of her time to the translation of such Swedish poets as Gunnar Ekelöf, Johannes Edfelt, and Karl Vennberg.
Nelly Sachs’s career as a poet of note started only after her emigration, when she was nearly fifty years old. Her first volume of poetry, In den Wohnungen des Todes (In the Houses of Death), 1947, creates a cosmic frame for the suffering of her time, particularly that of the Jews. Although her poems are written in a keenly modern style, with an abundance of lucid metaphors, they also intone the prophetic language of the Old Testament.
The collections Sternverdunkelung (Eclipse of Stars), 1949, Und niemand weiss weiter (And No One Knows Where to Go), 1957, and Flucht und Verwandlung (Flight and Metamorphosis), 1959, repeat, develop, and reinforce the cycle of suffering, persecution, exile, and death which characterizes the life of the Jewish people, and becomes transformed, in Nelly Sachs’s powerful metaphorical language, into the terms of man’s bitter, but not hopeless, destiny. Of her poetic dramas, the miracle play Eli (1950), broadcast in West Germany as a radio play, has been widely acclaimed. Nelly Sachs has received awards in Sweden and Germany, among them the Prize of the Swedish Poets Association (1958) and the “Friedenspreis des deutschen Buchhandels” (1965).
In 1961 her collected poems were published under the title of Fahrt ins Staublose (Journey to the Beyond); her verse dramas in Zeichen im Sand (Signs in the Sand). O the Chimneys, English translations of some of her poetry and of her play Eli, appeared in 1967.
From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969
This autobiography/biography was first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Bibliography
Works in German
Legenden und Erzaehlungen. – Meier, 1921
In den Wohnungen des Todes. – Aufbau, 1946
Sternverdunkelung. – Bermann-Fischer, 1949
Eli : Ein Mysterienspiel vom Leiden Israels. – S.n., 1951
Und niemand weiss weiter. – Ellerman, 1957
Flucht und Verwandlung. – Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1959
Fahrt ins Staublose : Die Gedichte der Nelly Sachs. – Suhrkamp, 1961
Die Gedichte der Nelly Sachs. – 2 vol. – Suhrkamp, 1961-71
Zeichen im Sand : Die szenischen Dichtungen der Nelly Sachs. – Suhrkamp, 1962
Das Leiden Israels. – Suhrkamp, 1962
Ausgewaehlte Gedichte. – Suhrkamp, 1963
Glühende Rätsel. – Insel, 1964
Späte Gedichte. – Suhrkamp, 1965
Die Suchende. – Suhrkamp, 1966
Wie leicht wird Erde sein : Ausgewaehlte Gedichte. – Bertelsmann, 1966
Simson faellt durch Jahrtausende und andere szenische Dichtungen. – Deutscher Taschenbuch, 1967
Das Buch der Nelly Sachs / herausg. von Bengt Holmqvist. – Suhrkamp, 1968
Verzauberung : Späte szenische Dichtungen. – Suhrkamp, 1970
Teile dich Nacht : Die letzten Gedichte / Herausg. von Margaretha Holmqvist und Bengt Holmqvist. – Suhrkamp, 1971
Suche nach Lebenden : Die Gedichte der Nelly Sachs / herausg. von Margaretha Holmqvist u. Bengt Holmqvist. – Suhrkamp, 1971
Briefe der Nelly Sachs / herausg. von Ruth Dinesen und Helmut Müssener. – Suhrkamp, 1984
Briefwechsel / Paul Celan, Nelly Sachs ; herausg. von Barbara Wiedemann. – Suhrkamp, 1993
Translations into English
O the Chimneys : Selected Poems, Including the Verse Play Eli / translated by Michael Hamburger and others. – Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1967
The Seeker and Other Poems / translated from the German by Ruth and Matthew Mead [and] Michael Hamburger. – Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1970
Paul Celan, Nelly Sachs : Correspondence / translated by Christopher Clark ; edited by Barbara Wiedemann. – Sheep Meadow Press, 1995
Literature (a selection)
Hardegger, Luzia, Nelly Sachs und die Verwandlungen der Welt. – Lang, 1975
Bahr, Ehrhard, Nelly Sachs. – C.H. Beck, 1980
Lermen, Birgit, Nelly Sachs – “an letzter Atemspitze des Lebens”. – Bouvier, 1998
Dinesen, Ruth, Nelly Sachs : eine Biographie / aus dem Dänischen von Gabriele Gerecke. – Suhrkamp, 1992
Nelly Sachs : neue Interpretationen : mit Briefen und Erläuterungen der Autorin zu ihren Gedichten im Anhang/ Michael Kessler, Jürgen Wertheimer (Hrsg.). – Stauffenburg, 1994
Ostmeier, Dorothee, Sprache des Dramas – Drama der Sprache : zur Poetik der Nelly Sachs. – Niemeyer, 1997
The Swedish Academy, 2007
