What is a ballad?
A ballad is a story told in verse. During the German Romantic period, numerous ballads were written that dealt with the forces of nature and the supernatural. Famous ballads in German-language literature include Goethe's ‘The Sorcerer's Apprentice’ and Heinrich Heine's ‘Germany, a Winter's Tale’.
She discovered the ballad for herself while translating Scotland's most famous verse story, Tam O'Shanter by Robert Burns.
In the stage programme SCHOTTENgeDICHT (English: Wild Tales & Poems from Scotland) her German-language version of the story was well received by the audience. Clarke recognised the potential of the genre to address challenging topics with ease.
She decided to reinvent the ballad for our times. Since then, she has written five ballads or verse stories that connect the personal with the global.
Park. Berlin. Wilderness. A ballad. (2025) - on the resurrection of fascism in Germany and Europe.
Lately, Lorca (2023). A Hommage to Federico Garcia Lorca -
on the life, work, struggle for freedom in the arts in times of dictatorship.
In the Absence of People. (2021) Written during lockdown, this ballad is an appeal for
action against climate change.
Memories of a Festival. Glemmingebro, Sweden.
A ballad written in nostalgia for a festival the covid-pandemic.
Athens in Crisis, a Love Story (2012, German translation 2014)
Tam of the Devil – a Ballad (2012), a German translation from the Scottish original
by Robert Burns ‘Tam O'Shanter - a Ballad’. This sparked the interest in the ballad as a medium.