Blumenthal receives award

By Sam Fran Scavuzzo
Collegian Editor
September 13, 2006

“Year later I have found you/,lady of encrusted time/,in the looking glass/,in the polished tin plates/covered with crystal mercury/,luminous as ever” are the lines which open Dr. Bernhardt Blumenthal’s award-winning poem, “Ancient Light.”

Dr. Bernhardt, the foreign language and literature chair, was recently awarded the
Robert L. Kahn Lyric Prize for best poem written in German. Photo taken by Sara Allen.

Originally written in German, the foreign language and literature chair recently was awarded the Robert L. Kahn Lyric Prize for best poem written in that language.

Founded by Kahn’s wife, Lissa, after his death, it is given annually by the Society for Contemporary American Literature in German (SCALAG).

In Blumenthal’s winning poem, he combined science with poetry to tell of love from another era.

“I like to apply physics to literature to form a type of science fiction lyric poetry,” said Blumenthal.

“A lot of the images included in this poem are derived from the science of light retrieval and mirrors.”

Using phrases like “flashes from black holes,” “bursting time” and “encrusted time,” Blumenthal shows his knowledge of light, time travel and mirrors.

Even by simply talking to him, one notices his thirst for knowledge, spouting off facts about the speed of light like it is second nature to him.

“For me, writing one poem takes a few months and involves a good deal of research; this one was no different,” said Blumenthal. “Professor Michael Proshan at La Salle helped me in my research of mirrors to use the scientific terms I used.”

“Ancient Light” addresses a concept similar to photography. The poem’s speaker walks by an old mirror and views an image of a lost lover. Exactly as she was in youth, the speaker sees her.

Unlike other previous winners of the Kahn Prize, Blumenthal, a graduate of La Salle with a masters from Northwestern, is an American-born scholar who does the bulk of his writing in German.

SCALAG is an organization composed of mostly German scholars throughout the country: some American born, some European.

“Even though I was born in America, because of my studies I can read and write interchangeably in German,” said Blumenthal. “In fact, most of the time I write in German and translate it to English if I get the chance to.”

The language of German, he feels, is easier to use for poetry: “German is very rhythmic. I like the cadence of the up and down – the low beat, heavy beat.”

On winning the award, Blumenthal was pleased and a little surprised.

“I submitted “Altes Licht” [German translation] to SCALAG’s magazine TRANS-LIT; however, I didn’t enter their awards. Their editorial board decided independently that mine should win. So to say I expected this award would not be true in the least,” said Blumenthal.

Blumenthal critiques as well as creates. This year’s July 16 Philadelphia Inquirer featured a review written by Blumenthal on Rainer Maria Rilke and Lou Amdreas-Salomé: The Correspondence.

“I like to write and I write a lot,” explains Blumenthal. “It’s nice to get published.” Blumenthal also uses everything he sees as influences.

“Writing about Rilke influenced me a lot as do a lot of German-speaking writers,” said Blumenthal. “Naturally others do as well: Garcia, Lorca, Diaro, Machado and, of course, Pablo Neruda.”

Not only do they affect his style of writing, but his writing process as well.

“Whenever anything crushing occurs, I start writing to assess things and great imagery comes out,” said Blumenthal. “I think this is true with a lot of poets.”

Poetry for Blumenthal is based entirely on imagery, and he offered the advice: “If you can’t achieve images, you can’t be a poet.”

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