Tears of the Fatherland

Andreas Gryphius is one of the most prominent poets of the German Baroque, who lived and worked during the most tragic time for Germany – the Thirty Years’ War. Gryphius was born in the city of Glogau (Silesia) into a pastoral family. He was educated at the Danzig (Gdańsk) Gymnasium, where he wrote his first poetic works in Latin.

Gryphius’ works are marked by inner restlessness and tension, as well as religious and mystical motifs, which are inherent in all German poetry of the Baroque era.

In today’s Germany, Gryphius’s work is studied in schools and universities. From time to time, his timeless works are republished, which, surprisingly, sound extremely modern.

Translator Oleg Zhupansky worked on the book for about forty years. And already in 1990, the magazine "Vsesvit" for the first time in Ukraine contained a large selection of poetry by A. Gryphius. The prepared book of A. Gryphius's works included almost a hundred of the poet's sonnets, as well as his odes, poems and epigrams. This is the poet's first book publication in Ukraine.