The Lady from Arezzo

by Alfred Brendel

  Daniil Kharms (Daniil Ivanovich Yuvatchev; 1905–1942), Russian writer of the absurd whose works, with the exception of his children’s books, became known only posthumously. Since the 1960s, his 1939 collection Cases has appeared in many languages. In 1917, with Alexander Vvedensky and Nikolai Zabolotsky, he founded the Oberiu group, which was banned by the Soviet State in 1930. Kharms died in prison during the siege of Leningrad. It contributes to the absurdity of his texts that they are frequently pointless.

  Velimir Khlebnikov (1885–1922), leading poet of the Russian avant-garde. With Vladimir Mayakovsky and Aleksei Kruchenykh he founded the Futurist group Gileas in 1912. Jointly with Kruchenykh he invented the artificial language Zaum. Khlebnikov was poor and had no fixed abode. His ‘Poem of Laughter’ emerged as an icon of modern poetry.

  Christian Morgenstern (1871–1914), German poet, translator and editor. There are people who seem alive only when they smile or laugh. Morgenstern’s serious, in part anthroposophic, poetry is forgotten while his Galgenlieder (1903) and the finest of his other grotesque poems have retained their freshness. To German literature, they added a missing dimension. An Esperanto version of Palmström was issued in 1983 in Paderborn. Galgenlieder, trans. Max Knight (University of California Press, 1964).

  Illustrations

  Man Ray, Le Cadeau (The Gift), c.1958

  Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York

  Photo: Paige Knight/SCALA, Florence

  Kurt Schwitters, Konstruktion für edle Frauen (Construction for Noble Ladies), 1919

  Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

  Photo: © bpk / Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) / Art Resource, NY

  Kurt Schwitters, Mz 334 Verbürgt rein, 1921

  Marlborough Fine Art (London) Ltd

  Catalogue: Kurt Schwitters, The Tate Gallery (London)/Museum of Modern Art (New York), 1985

  Dada Universal, graffiti, 2016

  Landesmuseum Zürich

  Photo: Maria Majno

  Francis Picabia, Edtaonisl (Ecclesiastic), 1913

  The Art Institute of Chicago

  Foto bpk / The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY.

  Catalogue: Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction

  Francis Picabia, Parade amoureuse, 1917

  Mr and Mrs Morton G. Neumann

  Catalogue: Francis Picabia, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf/ Kunsthaus Zürich

  Hannah Höch, Aus der Sammlung: Aus einem ethnographischen Museum (From the Collection: From an Ethnographic Museum), 1929

  Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

  Photo: Antonia Reeve

  Catalogue: Hannah Höch, Whitechapel Gallery, London/Prestel Verlag, München, 2014

  Franco Fedeli, Lady from Arezzo

  Private collection

  Photo: Maja Bodenstein

  Acknowledgements

  The essays ‘Everything and Nothing: Dada 2016’ and ‘Schubert’s Winterreise’ first appeared in modified versions in the New York Review of Books. ‘The Lady from Arezzo’ was written for Die Zeit.

  My warmest thanks go to Jill Burrows, Richard Stokes, Michael Morley, Misha Donat and Maja Bodenstein for their linguistic assistance, and Jeremy Adler for attempting the impossible in dealing with the translation of the untranslatable.

  The translation of Velimir Khlebnikov’s ‘Incantation by Laughter’ by Paul Schmidt is from Velimir Khlebnikov, The King of Time, trans. Paul Schmidt, ed. Charlotte Douglas (Harvard University Press, 1985), and of Christian Morgenstern’s ‘The Does’ Prayer’ by Max Knight is from Christian Morgenstern, Galgenlieder, trans. Max Knight (University of California Press, 1964).

  About the Author

  Born in 1931 in Moravia, Alfred Brendel lives in London. He is an acclaimed pianist worldwide, universally acknowledged to be one of the twentieth century’s most important performers of classical and romantic music. Although he has bidden farewell to the concert stage, he continues to give masterclasses and readings. As a writer, he has made a name for himself as an essayist and poet.

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  THE VEIL OF ORDER (with Martin Meyer)

  CURSING BAGELS

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  Copyright

  First published in the UK in 2019

  by Faber & Faber Ltd

  Bloomsbury House

  74–77 Great Russell Street

  London WC1B 3DA

  This ebook edition first published in 2019

  All rights reserved

  © Alfred Brendel, 2019

  Cover design by Faber

  Jacket photo by Maja Bodenstein, courtesy of the author

  The right of Alfred Brendel to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

  ISBN 978–0–571–35373–6