Title: On the Tidings of Time
Author: Ralph Günther Mohnnau, Translated by Christopher Martin
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-4120-6717-1
Pages: 172
Genre: Poetry
Reviewer: Arthur Thares

Read Book Review

Reviewing poetry is always an adventure because it is such a subjective art form. It gets even more challenging when the original work is in a language you’re not familiar with. Thankfully, On the Tidings of Time comes in its original German along with an English translation. This unique structure isn’t without its flaws, but it also has a few distinct advantages. At the end of the day, this is still a book of poems written from the heart by a poet with a clear love for his art form.

As the title suggests, time is the main subject of all poems; however, it is not the only subject. Other themes emerge, too, like in “Of the Thousand Times,” which is just as much about nature as it is the time that constrains it. There are many poems like “Time Eats Out of My Hand” that turn our concept of time on its head and make it more of an anthropomorphic entity walking alongside us. Poems like “Time and I” dig deep inside our psyches to question what time is and how we interact with it. The star poem of the entire collection has to be “Time and the Nuclear Physicist,” it asks questions without answers and really makes you think about how the entire world interacts around us.

Something which is both a blessing and a curse for this collection is its structure. On the one hand, having a book written in both German and English is a fun way for polyglots or aspiring polyglots to work on their German. On the other hand, if you don’t speak German, there are a lot of words in the way of the parts you want to read. For shorter poems, it isn’t a big deal, but the longer poems are broken into alternating English and German parts, so it’s easy to lose your spot in the poem. Those poems would have been better served by allowing for the whole poem to be written in each language instead of alternating each page. The book is structured into three distinct chapters, where poems loosely fit the theme of the chapter.

Some of these poems are heady. Some imagine time like a living being, while others take a more down-to-earth approach. They all remind us that time is not something that humans have control over. In fact, it’s still one of mankind’s greatest mysteries.

On the Tidings of Time is a lovely collection of poetry which was created in German, but translated for English speakers to spread the joy further. It is an absolute delight that will make you think, make you smile, and may even bring a tear to your eye on occasion. It is a celebration of language’s ability to hold memory, beauty, and the passage of time itself. This bilingual collection is a profound gift for poetry lovers who seek both intimacy and universality in verse.