Widely celebrated as the greatest German playwright of the twentieth century, Bertolt Brecht was also, as George Steiner observed, “that very rare phenomenon, a great poet”. Hugely prolific, Brecht wrote some 2,000 poems and songs—though fewer than half were published in his lifetime and early editions were extremely selective. Now, award-winning translators Tom Kuhn and David Constantine give us the most comprehensive English collection of Brecht’s poetry to date. Written between 1913 and 1956, these poems celebrate Brecht’s unquenchable “love of life, the desire for better and more of it” and reflect the technical virtuosity of an artist driven by bitter and violent politics, as well as by the untrammelled forces of love and erotic desire. The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht is a monumental achievement and a reclamation.

Translated by: David Constantine, Tom Kuhn