Poetry and Literary Works
Logician and lyricist at once! A rare phenomenon. - Wilhelm Klein SJ (1889-1995)
In early 2013, a new collection of J.H.'s poems was published in book form, in the poetry series of the Leipzig araki-Verlag, under the title “Sprache spricht mir. Die Summa poetica des Philosophen Johannes Heinrichs” (Language Speaks to Me. The Summa Poetica of Philosopher Johannes Heinrichs), price 15 €. Still available through Booklooker (including antiquarian copies).
The cover features a painting by Heinz Heinrichs, one of three uncles of Johannes Heinrichs who fell in World War II. Heinz Heinrichs painted this picture as a 22-year-old, not long before his death at age 23, on February 21, 1944, on the Eastern Front, not far from Stalingrad. The painting with the “Gypsy” motif is an act of silent protest against Nazi racism and at the same time a document of one of the millions of involuntary soldier deaths for the regime - and beyond that, a document of the numerous deaths of young, promising artists.
It is based on this poem known as a folk song by Nikolaus Lenau “Die Drei Zigeuner” (The Three Gypsies):
The Three Gypsies
Three gypsies once I found
Lying by a willow tree,
As my wagon, weary-bound,
Crept through sandy heath country.
One held for himself alone
In his hands a fiddle fine,
Played, by evening light full-grown,
A fiery song divine.
The second held his pipe in mouth,
Gazed upon his rising smoke,
Happy, as if north or south
Nothing more for joy he’d invoke.
And the third slept peacefully,
His cymbal hung upon the tree,
Over strings the wind ran free,
Over his heart a dream did flee.
On their clothes the three did wear
Holes and patches, bright and torn,
But they offered, bold and fair,
Scorn to earthly fortunes worn.
Threefold they have shown to me,
When life brings us to the night,
How one smokes it, sleeps it, plays it free
And despises it thrice with might.
After the gypsies long I gazed
As I continued on my way,
At their faces, dark and hazed,
Their black-curled hair’s display.
[Translation adapted from the German original]
Three Gypsies - Painting by Heinz Heinrichs (1944)
Contemporary Interpretation by Johannes Heinrichs
Here is the actualizing “re-creation” by Johannes Heinrichs, which represents a lyrical interpretation of the painting:
THREE GYPSIES ONCE I FOUND
Three gypsies
whose lives are also darkened
not because the violin wouldn’t sing
not because the pipe wouldn’t taste good
not because sleep wouldn’t bring dreams
They mock the human-made destinies
mocking while despising the contempt for power
of the benightment of righteous life
they fiddle away, sleep away, smoke away their fiddled-away life
they defy the snarling monsters of greed
See these slavering pine-tree mouths
toothless upper and/or lower jaws
above the heads of the prescient ones
and how a mighty beast
crushing everything races across the land
glowing in the light of the declining West
See them - discover the monsters
in the gray sky-negative of the idyll
see the inter- and nationalisms
for which our own also bled to death
our majority members also like our Heinz
what he painted with his still hot blood
But until today blind to tree-crown signs
sleep enjoy dance the Others differently
the learned pious powerful ones
ambitious climbers fellow travelers profiteers
whose lives are never darkened
Set, beautiful sun, in beautiful light
of democracy and discourse chatter
the wagon of weary torment in dry heath
sink into the bloodbath of this thirsting earth
We wait for your entirely new rising
After the faces long I must gaze
as I continue traveling
continue traveling
continue experiencing
(June 2012)
The following poetry collection in 6 thematic circles largely corresponds to the content of the above-mentioned book edition. Within the thematic circles, a chronological order is maintained, so that those interested in literature can observe the development of style.
Poetry Collection
Bibliography of Earlier Literary Publications
- Dialog fürs Ohr. Gedichte (Dialogue for the Ear. Poems) (25 poems) Edition Ilex Konzept, Ed. Berndt Mosblech, Duisburg 1980
- Auferstehung des Ungesagten. Ein Jahreskreis in Gedichten (Resurrection of the Unspoken. A Year’s Circle in Poems) (40 poems) Helikon Verlag Krefeld 1980
- Hörbares Denken und Erleben. Wie ich (meine) Lyrik sehe (Audible Thinking and Experience. How I See [My] Poetry) (Essay), ibid., 1–8
- “Schlüsselbilder” (Key Images). Reflections on Hermann James Schmitz Material Pictures, in: Catalogue for the Exhibition of the Protestant Student Community Duisburg 1979
- “So leben wir und nehmen immer Abschied” (Thus We Live and Always Take Leave). Eight poems in: Niederrhein-Autoren (Lower Rhine Authors) (Anthology), Mercator Verlag Duisburg 1981
- Three poems in: Gesichts-Punkte. Literatur in Duisburg (Face Points. Literature in Duisburg), Ed. Aletta Eßer, Sigrid Kruse, Berndt Mosblech, Gilles & Franke Verlag 1982
- “Unsicher aus den Siebziger Jahren” (Uncertain from the Seventies), five poems in: Die Kribbe. Rheinische Vierteljahresschrift für Literatur, Kunst und Wissenschaft (The Crib. Rhenish Quarterly for Literature, Art and Science), Ed. Ludwig Verbeek, Bonn 1/1982
- Nine poems in: Wahrnehmungen (Perceptions), Ed. Marianne Junghans (Autumn 1986)
- Wer allein ist, ist auch im Geheimnis (Who is Alone is Also in the Secret) (Essay), in: Lieber allein? Im Sog der Single-Gesellschaft (Rather Alone? In the Wake of the Single Society), ed. by Norbert Copray, Series “Zeit&Geist”, Kösel-Verlag, Munich 1991, 56-63
- Die Liebe buchstabieren. Das große ABC für Erlebnis-und Denkfreudige (Spelling Love. The Great ABC for Those Who Enjoy Experience and Thinking), 291 pp., Deutscher Studienverlag Weinheim 1994 (This currently out-of-print book contains more than 50 poems on the theme of “love” by Johannes Heinrichs.)