Frank Beck

'Oh, what I know, anyone can know. -- My heart is mine alone.'

(Ach was ich weis, kann jeder wissen. -- Mein Herz hab ich allein.)

'Das Leiden des jungen Werthers'
(The Sorrows of Young Werther)

Part Two, May 9th letter in this epistolary novel

I would like to take you for a walk in our sun.

~Franz Kafka, 1912.

🎨Anton Pavlenko.

The Most Chilling Detail in the U.S. Attack on an Iranian Naval Ship The Iranian warship was taking part in an international exercise with many other countries—including the United States.

This is a chilling crime. A shame on our country. The Iranian ship was unarmed. The US knew this. The sailors were murdered by our navy, and the survivors were left to die at sea.
newrepublic.com/post/207429/...

The Economic Crisis of the Iran War Could Get Very Bad, Very Fast If Donald Trump doesn't end the war by April, "oil prices could get into Scary Land," one expert told me.

“If the Strait of Hormuz is functionally closed [for] two weeks, I think we’re going to get $100-plus oil. If we go beyond that, then oil prices could start to get into Scary Land.”

www.derekthompson.org/p/the-econom...

'Oh, what I know, anyone can know. -- My heart is mine alone.'

(Ach was ich weis, kann jeder wissen. -- Mein Herz hab ich allein.)

'Das Leiden des jungen Werthers'
(The Sorrows of Young Werther)

Part Two, May 9th letter in this epistolary novel

So glad you liked it, Katherine.

Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say Military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday, two U.S. officials told Reu...

Reuters Exclusive

"U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school."

"The strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts in the ​Middle East."

Iran and the perils of fighting the last war As the Iran war intensifies across the Middle East, leaders cannot afford to draw the wrong lessons from past crises.

Former British diplomat Rob Macaire on mobilising the Kurds to help topple Iran's government: 'It’s difficult to think of a policy that would carry such meagre prospects of success and such overwhelming risks.'

Thomas Mann's art of contradiction Morten Høi Jensen’s 'The Master of Contradictions' explores the tensions at the heart of Thomas Mann’s world and shows how, in 'The Magic Mountain', he heroically struggles to resolve them.

Not AI but EI: Engelsberg Ideas. Do you know about this wonderful website, sponsored by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation in Stockholm? They post thoughtful writing and podcasts about history, literature, philosophy, politics, and other worthwhile human endeavors.

Here's a sample:

On taking people as they should be If we just take people as they are . . . we make them worse;  but, if we treat them not as they are but as they should be, we help...

'If we just take people as they are . . . we make them worse.'

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship: Book 8, chapter 4 (1796)

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Wir freuen uns auf Eure Bewerbungen!

There's no evidence Waugh read 'Le Grand Meaulnes', though his French was quite good and Françoise Delisle's English translation was available from 1928. I wish more people would discover Alain-Fournier's novel, which I wrote about for The Manhattan Review:
themanhattanreview.com/reviews/a-tr...

Military academy among locations hit by US, Israeli attacks on Tehran Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says 'no reason why we should negotiate', calls Washington untrustworthy.

BREAKING NEWS: Live updates on the war from Al Jazeera, the only world-class news organization based in the Persian Gulf.

Iran and the perils of fighting the last war As the Iran war intensifies across the Middle East, leaders cannot afford to draw the wrong lessons from past crises.

Former British diplomat Rob Macaire on mobilising the Kurds to help topple Iran's government: 'It’s difficult to think of a policy that would carry such meagre prospects of success and such overwhelming risks.'

Thanks for these. Ah, the cliffs where Rilke heard a voice that asked, 'Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the ranks of angels?' It still amazes me that those few words grew into 'The Duino Elegies'.
www.diehoren.com/2023/09/the-...

Actually, it's 336 pages: about have the length of a truly long poem, such as 'The Divine Comedy'. In any case, I don't think anyone's ever complained about Walcott's being wordy. Here's one of his most anthologized poems:
favoritepoems.diehoren.com/2015/04/love...

What has happened to my wonderful old department is typical of what Trump is doing to our government. Some thoughts on what's going on at the Department of Labor... https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-stupid-sad-scandalous-sleazy

A new play by Tim McGillicuddy celebrating the life of composer Fanny Mendelssohn opens in New York on March 26. (Portrait by Mendelssohn's husband, Wilhelm Hensel.)

Here are the details:
offbrandopera.org/fanny

I wonder how many US readers still read Derek Walcott, one of our modern masters in English. His long poem 'Omeros', already translated into Spanish, Italian, and German has just appeared in a new French edition by Franck Collin.

classiques-garnier.com/omeros.html

CDC warns travelers of polio before trips to Spain, UK and more The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Level 2 advisory as poliovirus appears in parts of Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

International travel may require a booster shot for protection against polio, which is now on the rise in dozens of nations, according to the CDC.

Thomas Mann's art of contradiction Morten Høi Jensen’s 'The Master of Contradictions' explores the tensions at the heart of Thomas Mann’s world and shows how, in 'The Magic Mountain', he heroically struggles to resolve them.

Not AI but EI: Engelsberg Ideas. Do you know about this wonderful website, sponsored by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation in Stockholm? They post thoughtful writing and podcasts about history, literature, philosophy, politics, and other worthwhile human endeavors.

Here's a sample:

A most important point: it was a condition of the international exercises that the Iranian ship be unarmed. Pete Hegseth seems proud of killing sailors with no way to defend themselves. In fact, their deaths make him a war criminal.

Firing Noem seems too lenient.

A most important point: it was a condition of the international exercises that the Iranian ship be unarmed. Pete Hegseth seems proud of killing of sailors with no way to defend themselves. In fact, their deaths make him a war criminal.

The No-Explanation War The Trump Administration has decided that it need not make a case for military action. In the current media environment, that approach makes a disturbing kind of sense.

Why hasn’t the Trump Administration bothered to justify its war in Iran? “If you never have to explain yourself, you can’t really ever be wrong,” @jaycaspiankang writes. www.newyorker.com/news/fault-l...

Die nächsten drei Vorträge der Ringvorlesung „Rainer Maria Rilke 1926 / 2026" 📚

📍 Universität Bern, Unitobler, Lerchenweg 36, 3012 Bern, Raum F 022

📷 Fondation Rilke

I wonder how many US readers still read Derek Walcott, one of our modern masters in English. His long poem 'Omeros', already translated into Spanish, Italian, and German has just appeared in a new French edition by Franck Collin.

classiques-garnier.com/omeros.html

The Stony Dark Within | Joy Williams This is the 150th anniversary of Rilke’s birth. Or, you might say, the 99th anniversary of his death. I asked a small group of students if they knew of

Joy Williams asked some US students who Rilke was. They didn't know. Does that surprise you? I doubt they'd heard of Flaubert, Akhmatova, or Lorca, either. Our schools teach little literature; books aren't a big podcast topic.

It's a small, small world.

www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...

If you have an interest in English-language poetry, I recommend PN Review from the UK. Here's what you'll find in their latest issue:

www.pnreview.co.uk