In their sou 'westers sea foam evaporates from their eyes the scales fall onto the pale bodies of the fish who dream that the fishermen sleep. Sabine Lange has been in print in Germany since 1987 and this, her first full collection, appeared in 1994 under the title "Immer zu Fuss". Her poetry explores the human - particularly the female - condition in the light of her personal experiences as a musician and poet, and is set against the backdrop of the beautiful Mecklenburg countryside in which she has spent most of her life. Written in deceptively simple language with short lines and striking images, her poems - often about love, music, the seasons, the landscape - are full of a meditative beauty which is sometimes peaceful, sometimes dark. But she can be upbeat too, funny, whimsical, exultant. "The Fishermen Sleep" is the first English translation of Lange's poetry, and the English-language reader is the richer for it.