Hans Werner Sokop Explained

Hans Werner Sokop
Birth Place:Vienna, Nazi Germany
Known For:translating the Divine Comedy into German

Hans Werner Sokop (born 13 January 1942) is an Austrian poet and translator. In parallel to his professional career at the municipal administration of Vienna he has published a vast range of publications ranging from various sorts of poems to translations into German and Viennese German. Specifically, he translated the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri in two versions in 1983 and 2014, the latter improved, but both retaining Dante's terza rima.

Life

Hans Werner Sokop was born in Vienna on 13 January 1942, the second child of Johann Sokop (1902–1981), a master typewriter mechanic, and Helene, née Parrer (1901–1998), a seamstress. From 1945 to 1950, the family lived in Hallstatt, then in Vienna. From 1952 to 1960, he attended the secondary school in Diefenbachgasse. After passing his school-leaving examination with distinction, he entered the administrative service of the City of Vienna and at the same time began studying law at the University of Vienna. After obtaining his doctorate in law in 1964, he remained in the municipal service and from 1967 worked in Municipal Department 62, which was responsible for elections and various legal matters and of which he was head from 1985 until his retirement in 2002. Hans Werner Sokop is married to the writer Brigitte Sokop,[1] née Nagel (Jene Gräfin Larisch,[2] Stammtafeln europäischer Herrscherhäuser[3]). His son Christian (born 1971) is a painter, author and musician. Together with him, he published two volumes of Viennese and English poems.[4]

His first German poems in the 1960s were characterized by formal rigour. From 1970, he also turned to the Viennese dialect. In addition to numerous volumes of poetry, a Viennese rhyming chronicle 1000 Years of Austria with two-liners for each year was published in 1996, followed by the antique addition Caesar schau oba and Das war alles, was geschah. He translated Wilhelm Busch classics into Viennese (e.g. Max and Moritz, Plisch and Plum, Die fromme Helene) as well as Der Weaner Struwwepeter, Der klane Prinz, Oh, wie schee is Panama and Der Alice ihre Obmteier im Wunderlaund. With his Schönbrunner Spaziergang and his St. Marxer Spaziergang with numerous photos and short poems, Sokop shows his love for Vienna; two island books (Einmal Korsika and Immer wieder nach Brioni) are written in sonnet form.

Sokop is also a master of linguistic games, e. g. in the form of shake rhymes and limericks or as acrostics and elegiac distiches. The Japanese style of haiku, often combined with photographs, is one of his interests. He was an enthusiastic participant in the legendary Profilspiel,[5] in good company with Martin Flossmann, Fritz Eckhardt, Hans Weigel, Ernst Stankovski and Herbert Prikopa.

Trips to Florence and Rome furthered his interest in Italian culture. In 1975, this also led him to Dante Alighieri, whose Divine Comedy he retranslated while retaining the terza rima form,[6] which was praised by Hans Weigel in the foreword.[7] It was published in 1983 as a four-volume cassette. To mark the 750th birthday of Italy's greatest poet, a new edition of the translation was published in 2014 with color illustrations by Fritz Karl Wachtmann, again while retaining Dante's tercines (rhyme scheme ABA BCB CDC DED):

Ich stand in unsres Erdendaseins Mitteverirrt in einem dunklen Wald alleine;kein rechter Weg mehr bot sich meinem Schritte.Das Reden fällt mir schwer, und ich vermeine,dass jenes wilden Waldes Dornendichteauch künftig mir als Schreckensbild erscheine:gleich bitter wie der Tod. — Doch ich berichtedes Guten wegen, das ich aufgenommen,von anderem, erschienen dem Gesichte.[8]

This text was the basis for a production by the Odysseetheater in 2018.[9] Further translations of Italian poems from Dante to Carducci and Jenco followed. With his 36 Dante anecdotes and two songs in Viennese, Sokop presented an additional, cheerful and contemplative approach to the great Florentine:

Hob Ritter gsegn, wauns ausm Loger ruckn,wüd vierebreschn, schwanzln zu Paradn,in Schwaf eiziagn, waun sa si verdruckn …Durch eicher Laund sans gjappet, de Brigadn,es Aretiner, so wia hinter Hosn.Turniere hob i gsegn und Kavalkadnmit Gleckerln oder aa Tompetnblosn,mit Turmsignale oder Trommelschlogn,und wos s’ aun Zeichn sunst no steign lossn.No nie hob i noch so an Urklaungbogndes Fuaßvoik ziagn gsegn oder aa de Reiter,ka Schiff daunk Stern und Leichtturm durch de Wogn.Mit zehn so Teifen plogn ma uns do weiter.A feine Rass! — In Kirchn si net rihrn,im Wirtshaus oba mit de Bsoffnan heiter …[10]

On a trip with the Società Dante Alighieri, he met Conte Pieralvise Serego-Alighieri, a 21st generation descendant who runs a winery in Valpolicella that had already been acquired by Dante's son Pietro. He was given a special honor in 2000 when he was allowed to present his translation of the Divine Comedy as part of the Dante events of the city of Ravenna. As a passionate admirer of Dante, Sokop has also collected everything related to Dante's life and work, which over time has resulted in a small Dante museum.

In 1990 he presented part of this collection under the title Dante live in Vienna at the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum. With his video Dante im Amt, Sokop opened up access to Dante for people interested in promoting culture.[11]

His favorite vacation island since 1986, the Brijuni National Park in Istria, led to several books and illustrated books with poems and haikus.[12] On this largely untouched island with limited tourism, there are remains of non-avian dinosaurs and traces of the Illyrians, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians and ancient Austrians, which has provided material for several books.[13] Sokop gives lectures, some with slides from his travels, and gives numerous readings, e. g. every year at the medieval festival in Eggenburg, Lower Austria[14] [15]

Works

Poems

Poems in Viennese dialect

Translations

Viennese contributions in dialect anthologies

Kalender

Legal publications

CDs

Memberships

Awards

About Hans Werner Sokop's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy

External links

Notes and References

  1. Itineraries of Brigitte Sokop in the Wien-Vienna Journal: https://www.vienna-journal.at/tag/brigitte-sokop/
  2. Brigitte Sokop: Jene Gräfin Larisch... Marie Louise Gräfin Larisch-Wallersee. Vertraute der Kaiserin - Verfemte nach Mayerling. Wien, Köln, Graz, Hermann Böhlaus Nachf., 1985, ISBN 3-205-07231-6, 553 pages
  3. Brigitte Sokop: Stammtafeln europäischer Herrscherhäuser. 3., verb. und erg. Aufl., Wien, Köln, Weimar. Böhlau, 1993.
  4. Chris and Hans Werner Sokop: Sokopoems. Wienerische Gedichte – English Poems. Zwiebelzwerg Verlag, 2019 and Sokopoems II, Wienerische Gedichte and English Poems, Zwiebelzwerg Verlag, Willebadessen, 2024
  5. Every week in 1973/74, the Austrian political magazine profil set a language game theme, which readers used creatively and imaginatively.
  6. „Mit meiner Übersetzung möchte ich den Versuch unternehmen, unter strikter Einhaltung der ein Wesensmerkmal des Werkes darstellenden Terzinenform eine dem Leser ansprechende, möglichst schwungvolle Fassung auf die Versfüße zu stellen, im eifrigen Bestreben, auf der Gratwanderung zwischen Originaltreue und Reimzwang nicht abzustürzen und Dante lebendiger zu vermitteln als 30 verschiedene, meine Bücherwand zierende Übersetzungen." Hans Werner Sokop in the foreword to the first edition of his translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, Inferno, arena 2000, Österreichische Gesellschaft zur Förderung von Kunst & Kommunikation, Wien, 1983.
  7. „Molière-Übersetzen ist schwierig, davon kann ich ein Lied singen. Shakespeare-Übersetzen ist schwierig, das kann ich mir vorstellen. Dante-Übersetzen ist unvorstellbar schwierig. Ich weiß zu wenig Einschlägiges, um die professionellen Meriten dieser neuen Übersetzung zu würdigen, aber ich weiß genug vom Übersetzen, um vor ihr bewundernd den Hut zu ziehen und über diese Vollbringung zu jubeln. Ich glaube, dass ich genug weiß, um zweierlei sagen zu dürfen: Die Lektüre dieser Verse gibt erwünschte Gelegenheit, Leser von heute an Dante heranzuführen. Da ist nichts um des Reimes Willen oder um des Metrums willen aus dem Original heraus und an die andere Sprache heran gekrampft, das fließt, wie sich’s gehört, und hält die rechte Mitte zwischen klassischer Würde und Lesbarkeit.“ Hans Weigel. In: Dante Alighieri. Die göttliche Komödie, Inferno, Wien: arena 2000, Österreichische Gesellschaft zur Förderung von Kunst & Kommunikation, 1983.
  8. Inferno, Canto I, 1–9. In: Dante Alighieri. Die Göttliche Komödie. Übersetzung von Hans Werner Sokop. Bilder von Fritz Karl Wachtmann. Akademische Druck und Verlagsanstalt, Graz 2014. Foreword by Hans Werner Sokop: „So habe ich meine ursprüngliche Version in sprachlicher Hinsicht verfeinert und enger dem Inhalt des Originals angeglichen.“
  9. The Odysseetheater is led by Wolfgang Peter. Weblink: https://odysseetheater.at/Hauptseite
  10. Inferno, Canto XXII, 1–15
  11. Dante im Amt was a media-wien production of the collection exhibited in Sokop's last office (1984–2002).
  12. Brioni. Gedichte aus Istrien. Wiener Geschützte Werkstätten, 1992; Über Brioni. Gedichte im Haiku-Takt, WGW 2002; Immer wieder nach Brioni – Istrianische Sonette. Vindobona, Horitschon 2009;
  13. Das war alles, was geschah. Eine Reimchronik von Odoaker (476) bis Ostarrichi (996). Ill. von Stoimen Stoilov. Sofia 2000; 1000 Jahre Österreich. Eine wienerische Reimchronik. ÖVG, Wien 1996
  14. https://www.zeitreise-ins-mittelalter.at/ Official website of the Eggenburg medieval festival
  15. Hans Werner Sokop's contributions at the Eggenburg medieval festival 2022: Mundartversionen berühmter Balladen und aus Kinderbüchern. Lesung 10.09.2022 im Rathaus; Dante über 700 Jahre unsterblich (Anekdoten und Commedia). Vortrag 10.09.2022 im Rathaus; Mundartversionen berühmter Balladen und aus Kinderbüchern. Vortrag 11.09.2022 im Rathaus; Dante über 700 Jahre unsterblich (Anekdoten und Commedia). Lesung 11.09.2022 im Rathaus.

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