Poetry
E' Schrek ob de' Lezeburger Parnassus
Not translated into English
Antoine Meyer · 1829
Synopsis
Six poems make up this slim collection. A love poem is addressed to Christine; a dark, romantic meditation is devoted to the night; a scene taken from life shows a moment spent in a town inn. The three fables feature not animals but objects: a shard of porcelain and an earthenware pot, the pin and the needle, the fly and the drinking trough.
Context
The book came off the presses of J. Lamort, on the place d'Armes in Luxembourg, and was received without great enthusiasm; Félix Thyes nonetheless hailed the man who rescued the speech of the country from contempt, and Franz Joseph Mone cited it the following year in his history of German literature. The author had to invent an orthography, and in 1832 he published a second booklet. Reprinted in 1935 in two hundred and fifty copies, the collection was reissued in 2004 by the Centre national de littérature, with a transcription by Roger Muller facing the text, and Steve Karier has recorded it.
Who it is for
For those interested in the first verse printed in Luxembourgish, including fables about familiar objects and an inn scene.
Prizes and reception
Received with reserve, it earned its author the reputation of being regarded as the founder of Luxembourgish literature.