For Michael Hamburger, every poem had to be written as if it were the last. This existential view of poetry also shapes his correspondence with Hilde Domin. Both experienced exile, but drew different conclusions from it.

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Whilst for Domin the native language remains the “unlosable”, the “indisputable home”, Hamburger can “no longer trust” his German, moving through it like someone walking “on crutches”. The correspondence, first published in SINN UND FORM 2/2026, deals with the “carrying over” between languages and translation as a compensatory strategy, the exile’s sense of alienation, and the re-encounter with a country that has long since become something else.

Matthias Weichelt, editor-in-chief of SINN UND FORM, discusses this intense poetic exchange and the search for the elusive truth of the poem with literary scholar and editor of the correspondence Till Greite (University of London) and the author Marion Poschmann, whose latest work, the poetic legend Die Winterschwimmerin (Suhrkamp), was published in 2025.

An event in cooperation with the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin

Fundsache Original: Hilde Domin, Michael HamburgerCorrespondence 1963–684/21/2026, 7:30 PM

Fundsache Original: Hilde Domin, Michael Hamburger
Correspondence 1963–68
4/21/2026, 7:30 PM