When I Left You, Afterwards…

by Bertolt Brecht

A poem from the collection 'Love Poems', translated and read by David Constantine (and with other poems in the collection by Tom Kuhn). (Liveright Publications). This book was shortlisted for the Popescu Prize 2015, judged by Olivia McCannon and Clare Pollard.

From the judges: "Arguably the greatest poet-playwright since Shakespeare, Brecht wrote more than 2000 poems in his lifetime, and yet is still mainly known in English for his plays. These 78 love poems, in pitch-perfect translations that capture all the virtuosity, rigour, humour, heart and urgency of the German, begin the work of righting that wrong. Tom Kuhn and David Constantine: ‘Brecht was always more or less in love, and in his total oeuvre, love, or let us say Eros, is expressed, discussed, enacted in an astonishing variety of modes, forms, tones and circumstances’. These are powerful, purposeful poems that show how love survives and resists dark times. "

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was a German playwright, poet and theatre director.