Hearing Eye

Translated by Martina Thomson. Panther and Gazelle contains translations of 42 poems from Dem Dunklen Gott (To the Dark God) 1932, with an introduction by the translator, and also reproductions of three other handwritten poems, two drawings and a painting by Ludwig. The poems arose from a passionate affair in 1931 with the surrealist poet Ivan Goll (the Dark God). They express moods of elation and desolation in concise and vivid imagery. Martina Thomson, born in Berlin of Austrian parents, came to England as a child. She remembers Paula Ludwig visiting her home as a family friend.

I became a dancer under his eyes –
darkly his voice beat the gong of my heart.
Under his hands
The iris of my body blossomed.

He leapt at me with the blackness of a panther,
in the skin of a deer he lay at my side.>