Mina Loy - Insel

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Huissier

: sheriff [Loy’s note]

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Es war wirklich prachtvoll

: It was really splendid

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Der Prozess

:

The Trial

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Zum Teufel

: What the devil

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Was haben Sie schönes erlebt

: What beautiful experiences have you had [

Loy’s note

]

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clochard

: tramp, hobo, bum

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Elle n’a pas froid aux yeux

: She does not have cold eyes

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Fleisch ohne Knochen

: boneless meat

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carrefour

: intersection

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Je suis la ruine féerique

: I am an enchanting ruin

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La faim qui rode autour des palaces?

: Starvation prowling palaces? [Loy’s note]

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I read later that sugar was used for strengthening concrete. [

Loy’s note

]

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Vielleicht verkaufen

: Perhaps to sell

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Die nackte Seele

: The naked soul [Loy’s note]

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schade

: a pity [

Loy’s note

], i.e., too bad!

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Sterben

: To die

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Sterben — man muss

: Die — one must

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Unglaublich

: Incredible

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consommation

: drink, snack

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Ameise

: ant

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cafés fines

: coffees and brandy

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librairie

: bookshop

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maquereau

: pimp

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macrusallo

(i.e., maquereau and salaud blended together)

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plat anglais

: a plate of cold meats

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Um Gottes Willen

: For God’s sake

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Pfefferminztee

: peppermint tea

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sommier

: divan

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Strahlen

: rays

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Ich bitte Sie

: I beg you

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femme de ménage

: housekeeper

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bidons

: cans

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Der Totenkopf

: The death’s-head (In earlier manuscript versions and in letters, Loy called the novel

Der Totenkopf

. —Ed.)

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pour se faire une beauté

: to make himself up, to do his face

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Chambres de Bonnes

: Maids’ Rooms

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Das ist die Irma?

: That’s Irma?

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Die Irma ist nass

: Die Irma is wet [Loy’s note]

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ou connait ça

: or knows that (obscure: perhaps a slip for “

qui connait ça

, who knows that”)

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lustig

: jolly [Loy’s note]

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grand sympathique

: the sympathetic nerve

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Gestatten Sie?

: May I?

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Entwicklung

: development

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écoliers

: schoolchildren

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Sterben — Man muss

: One must die (see

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)

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Ich bin so müde

: I am so tired

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Il dort dans son dos

: It sleeps on its back

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Und Tatsächlich

: “And as a matter of fact” [

Loy’s note

]

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trompe l’oeil

: deceptive appearance, illusion

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The poet Arthur Cravan (“Colossus”), Loy’s second husband, is considered a precursor of the Dadaists and a patron saint of the Surrealists. (Ed.)

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Seien wir uns wieder gut

: Let us like one another again, let’s make up

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die Rothaarige

: the redhead

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um Himmels Willen!

: for Heaven’s sake!

CHRONOLOGY OF MINA LOY

1882

b. December 27 as “Mina Gertrude Lowy,” London, England.

1899

Studies art with Angelo Jank at Kunstlerrinen Verein, Munich.

1901

Studies with Augustus John in London.

1903

Moves to Paris; marries Stephen Haweis.

1905

Enters Gertrude Stein’s circle of artists and writers.

1906

Elected member of Salon d’Automne; moves to Florence.

1907

Joella Synara Haweis is born.

1909

Giles (John Giles Stephen Musgrove) Haweis is born.

1913

Meets F. T. Marinetti and other Futurist artists and writers; separates from Haweis.

1914

First poems published (Camera Work).

1916

Sails for New York City, where she enters Walter Conrad Arensberg’s circle of artists and writers; meets Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Arthur Cravan, etc.

1918

Travels to Mexico; marries Cravan in Mexico City. She travels to Europe via Buenos Aires; he fails to meet her as planned; he is never seen again.

1919

London; Lausanne; Florence Fabi (Jemima Fabienne) Cravan is born.

1920

Returns to New York; deepens her ties with American avant-garde writers and artists.

1921

Paris, Florence.

1922

Florence, Vienna, Potsdam, Berlin.

1923

Settles in Paris; first book of poems published (Lunar Baedecker [sic], Contact Pub. Co.).

1925

Narrative poem, Anglo-Mongrels and the Rose, completed.

1927

Gives talk on Stein and reads her own poems at Natalie Barney’s salon.

1931

Becomes Paris representative for her son-in-law’s (Julien Levy’s) New York gallery.

1933

Meets Richard Oelze.

1936

Moves to New York; lives in the Bowery; friendship with Joseph Cornell; begins revising prose works begun in Paris, including Insel, presumably.

1946

Becomes American citizen.

1949

Moves to heart of Bowery; less and less contact with old friends living in New York.

1953

Lives near her daughters in Aspen, Colorado.

1959

Exhibition of her work, Bodley Gallery, New York.

1966

Dies, September 25, in Aspen.

(Adapted from The Last Lunar Baedeker , ed. Roger L. Conover [Highlands, N.C.: Jargon Society, 1982].)

CHRONOLOGY OF RICHARD OELZE

1900

b. June 29, Magdeburg.

1921–25

Studies at Bauhaus, Weimar; travels to Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Köln, Düsseldorf.

1926–29

Spends time in Dresden; more than a month-long visit at Dessau Bauhaus; travels to Essen.

1929–30

Ascona.

1930–32

Berlin; more than a month traveling in the Gardasee.

1932

Late fall: Travels to Mainz and Frankfurt/Main.

1933

March 31: Takes train across the border to France; settles in Paris; loose contact with Breton, Dali, Eluard, Ernst; October: exhibits paintings in Salon des Indépendents.

1936

October 1: Leaves Paris for Switzerland.

1936–37

Ascona.

1937–38

Positano.

1938

Returns to Germany: Essen, Mulheim/Ruhr, Magdeburg, Berlin.

1939

Early in the year: settles in Worpswede.

1940

Conscription and military service.

1945

American imprisonment and release.

1945–62

Worpswede.

1951

Marries Hedwig Rohde.

1953

Travels to Paris.

1962

Moves to Porteholz bei Hameln.

1964