![TRAKL, Georg (1887-1914). Autograph manuscript signed (with initials, 'G.T') of a poem, 'Nachtergebung' [Night surrender], July 1914, a clean copy of the fifth and last version, 12 lines on one page, 270 x 200mm (short split to left of horizontal fold, 35mm), tipped onto brown card; in a black card folder. Provenance: Trakl's mentor, Ludwig von Ficker, publisher of the expressionist journal Der Brenner, in which the poem first appeared; presented by him to Adele and Kurt Horowitz (presentation card inscribed by Ficker, Innsbruck, July 1928); further presentation inscription, 1987; sale Stargardt, 11 June 2002, lot 375a.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2007/CKS/2007_CKS_07411_0192_000(022247).jpg?w=1)
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TRAKL, Georg (1887-1914). Autograph manuscript signed (with initials, 'G.T') of a poem, 'Nachtergebung' [Night surrender], July 1914, a clean copy of the fifth and last version, 12 lines on one page, 270 x 200mm (short split to left of horizontal fold, 35mm), tipped onto brown card; in a black card folder. Provenance: Trakl's mentor, Ludwig von Ficker, publisher of the expressionist journal Der Brenner, in which the poem first appeared; presented by him to Adele and Kurt Horowitz (presentation card inscribed by Ficker, Innsbruck, July 1928); further presentation inscription, 1987; sale Stargardt, 11 June 2002, lot 375a.
ONE OF TRAKL'S LAST AND DARKEST POEMS, INSPIRED BY HIS COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS SISTER, MARGARETHE.
'Mönchin! schließ mich in dein Dunkel,
Ihr Gebirge kühl und blau!
Niederblutet dunkler Tau;
Kreuz ragt steil im Sterngefunkel.
Purpurn brachen Mund und Lüge
In verfallner Kammer kühl;
Scheint noch Lachen, golden Spiel,
Einer Glocke letzte Züge.
Mondeswolke! Schwärzlich fallen
Wilde Früchte nachts vom Baum
Und zum Grabe wird der Raum
Und zum Traum dies Erdenwallen.'
The text is as published in Ficker's Der Brenner, and represents the last of five known versions of the poem, which began as a five-line miniature, with the presiding figure of the 'Monkess' already present. This has been identified with Trakl's sister, Margarete, with whom the poet had a complex and possibly even incestuous relationship. He certainly introduced her to his habits of drug abuse, to which she succumbed after her brother's death, committing suicide in 1917.
The poem is one of Trakl's last: with the outbreak of the Great War in the following month he was called to the front in Galicia as a medical official, and his experience of caring for the wounded brought on a precipitous decline in his mental state. He committed suicide by an overdose of cocaine in a military hospital in Krakow on 3 November 1914. Ludwig von Ficker was the last of his friends to see him before his death.
ONE OF TRAKL'S LAST AND DARKEST POEMS, INSPIRED BY HIS COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS SISTER, MARGARETHE.
'Mönchin! schließ mich in dein Dunkel,
Ihr Gebirge kühl und blau!
Niederblutet dunkler Tau;
Kreuz ragt steil im Sterngefunkel.
Purpurn brachen Mund und Lüge
In verfallner Kammer kühl;
Scheint noch Lachen, golden Spiel,
Einer Glocke letzte Züge.
Mondeswolke! Schwärzlich fallen
Wilde Früchte nachts vom Baum
Und zum Grabe wird der Raum
Und zum Traum dies Erdenwallen.'
The text is as published in Ficker's Der Brenner, and represents the last of five known versions of the poem, which began as a five-line miniature, with the presiding figure of the 'Monkess' already present. This has been identified with Trakl's sister, Margarete, with whom the poet had a complex and possibly even incestuous relationship. He certainly introduced her to his habits of drug abuse, to which she succumbed after her brother's death, committing suicide in 1917.
The poem is one of Trakl's last: with the outbreak of the Great War in the following month he was called to the front in Galicia as a medical official, and his experience of caring for the wounded brought on a precipitous decline in his mental state. He committed suicide by an overdose of cocaine in a military hospital in Krakow on 3 November 1914. Ludwig von Ficker was the last of his friends to see him before his death.
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