"The distinctive autumnal and melancholy tone of Trakl's work - especially admired by his patron Ludwig Wittgenstein - reflects the spiritual and social disintegration on the eve of the First World War. The generalized sense of anguish and exaltation of this period is the background to Trakl's transcendent, often hymnic, always lyrical voice and to his haunting imagery in which purgatory and paradise are never far apart. This bilingual edition, the most comprehensive to date, gives English-language readers the chance to get to know Trakl's work more fully than ever before."--Jacket.