Michael Hamburger Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Michael Hamburger (born 22 March, 1924) is a British translator, noted for his translations in particular of Hölderlin, Paul Celan and W. G. Sebald from German, a poet, critic and academic.He was born in Berlin into a Jewish family, who left for the UK in 1933, and settled in London. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. He was in the British Army from 1943 to 1947. After that he completed his degree, and wrote for a time. He took a position at University College, London in 1951, and then at the University of Reading in 1955. There followed many further academic postions, in the UK and the USA.
He has published translations of many of the most important German-language riters, poets especially. This work has been recognised by numerous awards; also an OBE in 1992.
The Truth of Poetry (1968) is a major work of criticism. His Collected Poems, 1941-1994 (1995) drew on around twenty collections.
He lives in Suffolk, and appeared as himself, as a character in W. G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn.