SOURCE: “A Conversation with Hans Magnus Enzensberger,” in Northwest Review, Vol. XXI, No. 1, 1983, pp. 142-46.

In the following essay, Schultz and Enzensberger discuss his poetry, its hopeful themes, and his use of language in relation to power and politics.

Munich, July 1982. The windows of the large upstairs apartment are open to the street noise below, to the smells of the city, the summer breeze. Hans Magnus Enzensberger is at home this afternoon, willing to respond to questions I bring from the United States. But before our conversation about reading and writing poetry gets under way, he suggests doing something practical, that is, reading together some translations I did: “Only by working on something do we get to know one another.” He is interested in every word, points out allusions, explains the context. I am intrigued by his lively concern over verifying the vernacular for a particular line. “Are...