Yesterday I introduced an Eastern European poet writing about exile who was not very well known. As a permanently poor refugee she never had the privilege of higher education, but started writing early in life.

Today I offer a striking contrast. Hilde Domin, (Hildegard Löwenstein) was born in 1909 into a well-to-do Jewish family near Cologne, got her PhD in political science among other degrees, studying with Karl Jaspers; she left Germany early, in 1930, to Italy, then to England, then fled to Santa Domingo in 1940, since she could get no-one to be a guarantor in any other countries that accepted Nazi refugees. She only starte to write poetry in 1951 when her mother died, and took up in full force upon her return to Germany in 1954.

She was smart, regal, prone to acerbic gossip, and never shy. She was a brilliant poet, with a confidence that I believe originated in her sense of self that was securely rooted in her intellect and her belief that poetry had a responsibility to be political.

She won about every honor and prize there is, was active until her last breath (she died this month in 2006 in her 90s.)

The obituary below gives the details.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/mar/16/guardianobituaries.bookscomment1

I am also attaching a clip from a documentary about her that gives you a sense of her personality.

And I liked the fact that Abbas Khider, a Germany Iraqi poet who won the Literature in Exile prize in 2013, prefaced his collection with one of Domin’s most famous poems. (You can see the dove in question in the documentary trailer.)

http://www.dw.com/en/german-iraqi-wins-literature-in-exile-prize/a-17095449

 

 

My choice of poem, though, is more closely related to the experience of those who seek a haven and have little chance to find one if they are without means and/or connections. Ask anyone in Aleppo today.