R. S. THOMAS

Stone Twittering

Steinzwitschern

"To get R.S. Thomas into circulation in Germany ... is a real service to poetry." (Oxford Magazine)

On the occasion of its 25th anniversary late in 2008 BABEL brought out a new bilingual selection of 30 poems from 15 collections by R.S. Thomas (1913-2000).

BABEL's beginnings were firmly linked with this poet. In 1983, the first issue of the international poetry and translation magazine, BABEL, was devoted to R.S. Thomas' work on the occasion of his 75th birthday. It included an unpublished poem and a checklist. Frieze, a collection of new work by the Welsh poet, followed in 1992. BABEL then brought out three bilingual selections: The Bright Field / Das helle Feld (1995), Deciduous Languge / Laubbaum Sprache (1998), and Charity's Scarecrow / Die Vogelscheuche Nächstenliebe (2003), including uncollected and previously unpublished poems.

The fourth bilingual volume, Stone Twittering / Steinzwitschern - the title comes from the poem Monet: Rouen Cathedral, Full Sunshine from Between Here and Now - contains no poems that have appeared in any of the other three. It is, like each of the others, a selection of some of R.S. Thomas' best poems from over a dozen collections spanning five decades and offering a wide range of themes and tones. It contains one poem still uncollected in English, one poem that has only appeared (albeit in a slightly different form) in ringless fingers (published in Thailand in an edition of only 15 copies), and also one poem that has never been published anywhere in English (or any other language).

Stone Twittering / Steinzwitschern was set in Garamond and printed by offset lithography by Dinauer GmbH, Puchheim on 120gsm off-white wood-free paper. Format: 24 x 17.5 cm; 84pp.; 1,000 copies. The book is sewn, with a 240gsm wrap-around wood-free paper cover (Munken Pure Design Card) printed in two colours.

75 numbered specials (including the printed list of subscribers) contain an original etching by Vroni Schwegler, also limited to 75 numbered copies, signed by the artist (born in 1970, studied with Hermann Nitsch at the Städelschule, Frankfurt, where she now teaches), who has provided etchings for four recent BABEL books.

R. S. Thomas,   STONE TWITTERING / STEINZWITSCHERN (bilingual)   soft-bound    ISBN 978-3-931798-33-8    £ 18

STONE TWITTERING / STEINZWITSCHERN   special: numbered (1-75) with signed, numbered (1-75) etching by V. Schwegler    £ 98

cf.   The Bright Field / Das helle Feld,   Frieze,   Decidious Language / Laubbaum Sprache,   Charity's Scarecrow / Die Vogelscheuche Nächstenliebe,   With Claws of Fire / Mit Fängen aus Feuer,   Das Kreuz,   The Cross,   The Sky-Rhyming Child / Das himmelreimende Kind,   In Delicate Nooses / In zierlichen Schlingen,   Dove-Marks on Stone