The translations published here - some older and some more recent - are divided into five parts, based on the place of writing of the poems. Because the various migrations and wanderings of Brecht - from his Bavarian hometown to the interwar, pre-Hitler Berlin, from his Hitler-occupied homeland to the odyssey of exile, and from the despair of foreign lands to the hopeful return - correspond to equally significant turns in the spiritual journey of the poet.

A sixth part of this edition consists of a selection from "Poems from the Brass Market" (Gedichte aus dem Messing-kauf), which were published in Notebook 14 of "Essays" (Versuche, 1955). The "Brass Market" is a theoretical work on theater that Brecht started writing in 1939 and remained unfinished. A brief summary of it - as he himself states - is the well-known "Little Organon for the Theater" (Kleines Organon für das Theater, 1948).

We will not reiterate the common "we tried to remain faithful to the style and spirit of the poet." Such an effort is an obvious duty of every translator. And no "outburst" is necessary...

(from the foreword by Marios Ploritis)