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Concept
Joachim Werneburg
Summary
Joachim Werneburg (born July 15, 1953 in Erfurt, East Germany) is a German writer who publishes lyric-epic texts and short prose.
Joachim Werneburg is the son of the artist Walter Werneburg. From 1973 to 1977, he studied theoretical electrical engineering at Technische Universität Ilmenau and was a member at circle of writing students. From 1977 to 1990, he performed a double life as poet and engineer at a microelectronics company in Erfurt. After the Peaceful Revolution in Eastern Germany, he was working at an environment association and, from 1997 to 2019, as government employee.
Still in GDR-times, a mythology of Thuringia – including geology, plant, and animal beings – was written in the volume "Thüringer Meer" (Thuringian Sea). One aspect of this book is the creative conflict between the Slavic immigration (Wends) and the western conquests (by the Merowingians). A response to the zeitgeist of GDR-times can be found in sharp-tongued epigrams.
By the end of the 1980th, free adaptations from the work of the Chinese poet Pe-lo-thien were written (Bai Juyi, 772–846, Tang dynasty). These are particularly characterized by bewitching images of nature combined with social critics. Werneburg recognized Pe-lo-thien as a kindred spirit and discovered comparable existential experiences (in: "Die Reise nach Südost", Journey to South-East).
The lyric-epic poems of Werneburg written since 1980 belong to a Great Cycle, a world-poem. The Cantos of Ezra Pound served the paragon for such an approach. Of about 100 planned poet cycles, four-fifths are already present. The poem-books published since 2002 illustrate cultural landscapes of the Provence, Cornwall, and portray the mythical conflict between the antique Mediterranean or the ancient Celtic Wales. An Andalusian poem cycle refers to Islamic motifs. Pulsatively, Werneburg returns to Thuringia with his works, such as in a series of ten nature lyric elegies, which are united in the volume "Die Klage der Gorgonen" (The Gorgon's Dirge). Younger text lead to Asia, a dancing dervish, the Yellow Dragon, or the Nō-play.
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