84. Poet of the rural, natural world

Murray is the poet of Australian rural life and work, and the natural world in which they are conducted. He invests the rituals, grandeur, wonder and hardships of both spheres with a powerful sense of the sacred.

But read between the lines of this truncated character sketch and you also get a glimpse of what has been a sometimes fractious career. Murray has been garlanded with prizes – TS Eliot (1996), Queen’s gold medal for poetry (1999) – and tipped for the Nobel, but he has often been cast, as much by himself as anyone else, as an outsider. / Nicholas Wroe, The Guardian 20.11.

Taller When Prone by Les Murray – review
Les Murray’s poetry is a masterclass in observation, writesKate Kellaway

In L&Poe

• Les Murray: Übersetzungen aus der Natur. Ausgewählt und aus dem Englischen übertragen von Margitt Lehbert. 94 S., plus CD: Les Murray reads his poems «Translations from Nature». Edition Rugerup, Hörby 2008. Zus. € 29.90.
• LES MURRAY: Gedichte, groß wie Photos. Zweisprachige Ausgabe. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Margitt Lehbert. Edition Rugerup, Hörby 2006. 191 Seiten, 19,90 Euro.
• Les Murray: Fredy Neptune. Aus dem australischen Englisch von Thomas Eichhorn. Ammann-Verlag, Zürich 2004. 520 S.