Best german poetry books according to redditors

• If you like that "Deep Image" stuff Transtroemer does, I think you'll like Paul Celan. Either get Pierre Joris's translation, which is more contemporary and Avant-garde influenced, or Michael Hamburger's translation, which is as accurate a translation anyone can achieve when dealing with a difficult poet like Celan. I prefer Hamburger.
  
  
• Anything by Czeslaw Milosz.
  
  
• You may also enjoy Fanny Howe's new translation A wall of two: poems of resistance and suffering from Kraków to Buchenwald and beyond. I saw her read from this at an event recently… it's a really charged translation that is steeped in the cultural and literary traditions you're looking to read.

Rainier Maria Rilke

I am much too alone in this world, yet not alone

enough
to truly consecrate the hour.

I am much too small in this world, yet not small

enough

to be to you just object and thing,

dark and smart.

I want my free will and want it accompanying

the path which leads to action;

and want during times that beg questions,

where something is up,

to be among those in the know,

or else be alone.

Das Parfüm von Patrick Süßkind https://www.amazon.de/Das-Parfum-Geschichte-eines-M%C3%B6rders/dp/3257228007/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314457197&sr=1-1

In Orphic Bling: Pynchon and Rilke from Wicklit blogspot, translations from both Mitchell and Leishman & Spender were cited.
On Quora, Michael Masiello whom I follow suggested Edward Snow.
An excerpt from archetypographia reads as such: “While Mitchell tends to avoid God, Gass revels in spirituality, Leishman and Spender write a more dry, academic version, Barrows and Macy play with the imagery and delicate language."
On Amazon, experienced user M. Myshack seemed to lean on MacIntyre’s “plainer, more resonate language,” and he thought Snow’s adaptation is more mundane than the poetic Mitchell.


As for me I couldn't recall much, but Mitchell seems reasonable enough. It has been my principle to prioritize poetic over literal ever since I picked up Beckett's translation of Rimbaud's "drunken boat." Anyway, good luck with your picking~

Da ich nicht genau weiß, was du mit "ältere Schriftstellern" meinst bzw. welchen Zeitraum, einfach mal ein paar detusche Bücher, die mir spontan einfallen: Patrick Süßkind - Das Parfüm, Martin Suter - Die dunkle Seite des Mondes, Friedrich Dürrenmatt - Die Physiker und Michael Schmidt-Salomon - Sollbergs Inferno

Collected writings of Rilke. Maybe this one.

Till Eulenspiegle This is a book of short children's stories along with others such as Max und Moritz (I think has an english glossary/text with german) and [Struwwelpeter] (http://www.amazon.com/Struwwelpeter-lustige-Geschichten-drollige-ebook/dp/B004SIS7OQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1313627640&sr=1-2) All of these are a good level, a tad simple but very good to read.

For some higher level yet not incredibly difficult...well I guess that depends: (all of these are short plays.)

Der Besuch Den Alten Dame

Woyzeck

and my absolute favorite play/short stories

Draussen Vor Der Tür

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quiet-Nights-Till-Lindemann/dp/1935738712
Waiting eagerly for Flake's book in English though...

Ich habe so bis zur 5.-6. Klasse sehr viel in meiner Freizeit gelesen, aber ab da ist mir das dann irgendwie etwas abhanden gekommen. Auf der weiterführenden Schule habe ich nicht ein Buch (durch)gelesen. Privat eventuell ein oder zwei, aber bis zum Abi war da nicht wirklich was. Comics, Graphic Novels und Zeitschrifen aber immer viel und häufig. Gerade bei Zeitschriften war einfach immer ein baldiges Ende des Textes abzusehen.

Als ich dann aber von der Schule runter war, hab ich mir nochmal angeschaut, was ich denn eigentlich so an Lektüre über die Jahre verpasst habe und dann Jugend ohne Gott und Faserland nachgeholt, welche mir auch beide sehr zugesagt haben. Gerade Jugend ohne Gott hat sich als Wiedereinstieg gut geeignet, da nicht zu lang.

Seit dem habe ich wieder ab und an was gelesen, bin aber weit davon entfernt eine Leseratte zu sein.

Bücher die ich gelesen habe sind u.A.:

• Nichts (Empfehlung, gerade zum Einstieg)
  
  
• Tschick (Empfehlung, gerade zum Einstieg)
  
  
• Honig (Keine Empfehlung)
  
  
• Gomorrha (Empfehlung)
  
  
• ZeroZeroZero (Empfehlung)
  
  
• Der Pate (Empfehlung)
  
  
• Per Anhalter durch die Galaxis (Empfehlung)
  
  
• Das Restaurant am Ende des Universums (Empfehlung)
  
  Ansonsten bin ich mittlerweile dazu übergegangen mehr Sachbücher als Romane zu lesen. Geschichten erfahre ich einfach am liebsten über's Kino.
  
  Oh, und ich hab mal versucht Harry Potter zu lesen. Zumindest auf deutsch hat mir das überhaupt nicht zugesagt und ich habe das Gefühl, dass wenn man das nicht als Kind/Jugendlicher gelesen hat, ist es schwer das noch nachzuholen.
  
  Redigierung: Gab sicher noch ein paar mehr Bücher die ich gelesen habe, aber diese sind mir auf Anhieb eingefallen.

There's probably a few ways you could go about expanding your knowledge base. The two that seem most fruitful are

1. Reading for a deeper understanding of the topics that you're already familiar with.
   
   
2. Ranging more broadly into other areas that may interest you.
   
   If (1), then I'd probably suggest one of two courses. Either, (a) read the stuff that influenced the existential thinkers that you've listed, or (b) read some literature dealing with issues related to the thinkers you've listed.
   
   For (a) I'd suggest the following:
   
   

• Anything by Kant
  
• (In the case of Kierkegaard) Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit or his Aesthetics
  
• (For Nietzsche) Emerson's essays, Schopenhauer's World as Will and Representation, or Spinoza's Ethics
  
• Maybe some Freud for the later thinkers? Civilization and its Discontents is really good.
  
  For (b) it's really a mixed bag. I'd suggest going through the SEP articles on the thinkers you've listed and looking into some good secondary literature on them. If you're super interested in Nietzsche, I'd definitely suggest reading Leiter's Nietzsche on Morality. I really couldn't tell you more unless you told me something more specific about your interests.
  
  If (2), then I suppose I'd suggest one of the following:
  
  
• Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy for a good, broad introduction to Chinese Thought
  
• The Analects of Confucius. This translation is excellent
  
• A Short History of Chinese Philosophy
  
• Heidegger's Being and Time
  
• Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception
  
• Some of Rilke's work
  
• Unamuno's Tragic Sense of Life
  
  Again, it's hard to give you better directions without more information on what you're actually interested in. I've just thrown a bunch of stuff at you, and you couldn't possibly be expected to read, say, Schopenhauer's World as Will and Representation over break and be expected to really understand it.

I prefer the Hamburger translations. Granted, I have this rather than the one you listed. Here's an interesting article comparing Hamburger's and Felstiner's translations.

You'll probably like Holderlin then. He's amazing.

I have this one - with German and English text. i think it's still the academic standard in the US. I don't know about elsewhere. They may have a better annotated version by German scholars.

http://www.amazon.com/Poems-Fragments-Edition-Poetica-English/dp/0856463604/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1410447259&sr=8-2&keywords=holderlin

You can get Till's books translated however that's about it.

https://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Nights-Till-Lindemann/dp/1935738712

Faust

Die Physiker

Die Leiden des jungen Werther

Der Prozess

Buddenbrooks

Emilia Galotti

Das Parfüm

Die Blechtrommel

Im Westen nichts neues

These are the ones I remember from school.

I am not sure if they are easy enough to read for you, "Die Physiker" and "Emilia Galotti" are probably the easier ones to read out of these.