{"product_id":"2026200012371-secondhand-poems-and-ballads","title":"Poems And Ballads","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Fair\u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Condition as shown in image\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom behind a microphone stand, a defiant voice rose against the iron grip of East German authoritarianism — that voice belonged to Wolf Biermann, and Poems and Ballads is its enduring written testament. This landmark collection gathers the incendiary verse and biting ballads of one of the twentieth century's most courageous political poets, a man whose work was banned in East Germany for over a decade and whose 1976 expatriation by the Communist regime ignited a firestorm of international protest. Rooted in the traditions of Bertolt Brecht and François Villon, Biermann's poetry chronicles the lives of ordinary people crushed beneath the weight of ideology, wielding dark humour, raw emotion, and razor-sharp wit as instruments of resistance.\n\nTranslated for the Anglophone world by Steve Gooch, this collection stands as a vital document of Cold War-era dissent, illustrating the power of lyric verse to challenge state tyranny. Biermann's voice is simultaneously tender and combative, blending folk-song simplicity with profound political intelligence. The result is a body of work that transcends its specific historical moment, arguing with fierce urgency that art and conscience are inseparable — leaving the reader to wonder what it truly costs a society to silence its poets.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49130978017499,"sku":"2026200012371-SECONDHAND","price":10.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/227d8844-9230-43a4-b5b4-a9307427999f.png?v=1786593404","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200012371-secondhand-poems-and-ballads","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}