Und wir werden die Maschinen für uns weinen lassen

“A synthesis of the contemporary Romanian society, sarcastic but nonetheless full of hope,” reads the characterization of Claudiu Komartin’s poems in the review by Jan Koneffke. This bilingual selection of poems tells of difficulties of a society to leave behinds it totalitarian past. Very rarely have poems so oppressively captured the gloomy “vor sich Hinbrüten” of a society that stagnates and prefers to look away. “Buried by the family history”, calls this the son in the cycle “Father” about a toothless despot lying on his deathbed encircled by the love-hate of the family who had always wanted him dead but now cannot leave him nor let him die. In the cycle “Overdose”, personal hopes and wishes rise up only as blind stumps from the (self-)stupefaction with medication. Komartin’s characters only slowly brake through this collective isolation of the individual and let memories, feelings, friendship, and smiles in.