Paul Celan
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Paul Celan (; ; 23 November 1920 – c. 20 April 1970) was a Romanian-born German-language poet and translator. He was born as Paul Antschel to a
Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish family in Cernăuți (German: Czernowitz), in the then
Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...
(now
Chernivtsi Chernivtsi ( uk, Чернівці́}, ; ro, Cernăuți, ; see also other names) is a city in the historical region of Bukovina, which is now divided along the borders of Romania and Ukraine, including this city, which is situated on the upp ...
, Ukraine), and adopted the pseudonym "Paul Celan". He became one of the major German-language poets of the post-
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
era.


Life


Early life

Celan was born into a German-speaking
Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish family in
Cernăuți Chernivtsi ( uk, Чернівці́}, ; ro, Cernăuți, ; see also other names) is a city in the historical region of Bukovina, which is now divided along the borders of Romania and Ukraine, including this city, which is situated on the up ...
,
Bukovina Bukovinagerman: Bukowina or ; hu, Bukovina; pl, Bukowina; ro, Bucovina; uk, Буковина, ; see also other languages. is a historical region, variously described as part of either Central or Eastern Europe (or both).Klaus Peter BergerT ...
, a region then part of Romania and earlier part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
(when his birthplace was known as Czernowitz). His first home was in the Wassilkogasse in Cernăuți. His father, Leo Antschel, was a
Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
who advocated his son's education in
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
at the Jewish school ''Safah Ivriah'' (meaning ''the Hebrew language''). Celan's mother, Fritzi, was an avid reader of
German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy a ...
who insisted German be the language of the house. In his teens Celan became active in Jewish
Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
organizations and fostered support for the
Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
cause in the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
. His earliest known poem is titled ''Mother's Day 1938''. Paul attended the Liceul Ortodox de Băieți No. 1 (Boys' Orthodox Secondary School No. 1) from 1930 until 1935, Liceul de Băieți No. 2 în Cernăuți (Boys' Secondary School No. 2 in Cernăuți) from 1935 to 1936, followed by the Liceul Marele Voievod Mihai (Great Prince Mihai Preparatory School, now Chernivtsi School No. 5), where he studied from 1936 until graduating in 1938. At this time Celan secretly began to write poetry. In 1938 Celan traveled to
Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...
, France, to study
medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
. The
Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...
precluded his study in Vienna, and Romanian schools were harder to get into due to the newly imposed
Jewish quota A Jewish quota was a discriminatory racial quota designed to limit or deny access for Jews to various institutions. Such quotas were widespread in the 19th and 20th centuries in developed countries and frequently present in higher education, o ...
. His journey to France took him through Berlin as the events of ''
Kristallnacht () or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...
'' unfolded, and also introduced him to his uncle, Bruno Schrager, who was later among the French detainees murdered at Birkenau. Celan returned to Cernăuţi in 1939 to study
literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
and
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
.


Life during World War II

Following the
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
occupation of Bukovina in June 1940, deportations to
Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
started. A year later, following the reconquest by Romania,
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and the then-fascist Romanian regime brought
ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...
s, internment, and forced labour (see
Romania in World War II Following the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania under King Carol II officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the rapidly changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political up ...
). On arrival in Cernăuți in July 1941, the German SS ''
Einsatzkommando During World War II, the Nazi German ' were a sub-group of the ' (mobile killing squads) – up to 3,000 men total – usually composed of 500–1,000 functionaries of the SS and Gestapo, whose mission was to exterminate Jews, Polish intellectu ...
'' and their Romanian allies set the city's Great Synagogue on fire. In October, the Romanians deported a large number of Jews after forcing them into a ghetto, where Celan translated
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's
sonnets A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's inventio ...
and continued to write his own poetry. Before the ghetto was dissolved in the fall of that year, Celan was pressed into labor, first clearing the debris of a demolished post office, and then gathering and destroying
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
books. The local mayor,
Traian Popovici Traian Popovici (October 17, 1892 – June 4, 1946) was a Romanian lawyer and mayor of Cernăuți during World War II, known for saving 20,000 Jews of Bukovina from deportation. Life Popovici was born in Rușii Mănăstioarei village of t ...
, strove to mitigate the harsh circumstances, until the governor of Bukovina had the Jews rounded up and deported, starting on a Saturday night in June 1942. Celan hoped to convince his parents to leave the country so as to escape certain persecution. While Celan was away from home, on 21 June 1942, his parents were taken from their home and sent by train to an
internment camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
in
Transnistria Governorate The Transnistria Governorate ( ro, Guvernământul Transnistriei) was a Romanian-administered territory between the Dniester and Southern Bug, conquered by the Axis Powers from the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa and occupied from 19 Aug ...
, where two-thirds of the deportees eventually perished. Celan's father likely perished of
typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...
and his mother was shot after being exhausted by forced labour. Later that year, after being taken to a labour camp in
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
, Celan would receive reports of his parents' deaths. Celan remained imprisoned in a work-camp until February 1944, when the Red Army's advance forced the Romanians to abandon the camps, whereupon he returned to Cernăuţi shortly before the Soviets returned. There, he worked briefly as a nurse in the mental hospital. Friends from this period recall Celan expressing immense guilt over his separation from his parents, whom he had tried to convince to go into hiding prior to the deportations, shortly before their deaths.


Life after the war

Considering emigration to Palestine, Celan left Cernăuţi in 1945 for Bucharest, where he remained until 1947. He was active in the Jewish literary community as both a translator of
Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were c ...
into Romanian, and as a poet, publishing his work under a variety of pseudonyms. The literary scene of the time was richly populated with
surrealists Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
Gellu Naum Gellu Naum (1 August 1915 – 29 September 2001) was a Romanian poet, dramatist, novelist, children's writer, and translator. He is remembered as the founder of the Romanian Surrealist group. The artist Lygia Naum, his wife, was the inspiration a ...
,
Ilarie Voronca Ilarie Voronca (pen name of Eduard Marcus; 31 December 1903, Brăila—8 April 1946, Paris) was a Romanian avant-garde poet and essayist. life and career Voronca was of Jewish ethnicity. In his early years, he was connected with Eugen Lovine ...
,
Gherasim Luca Gherasim Luca (; 23 July 1913 – 9 February 1994) was a Romanian surrealist theorist and poet. Born Salman Locker in Romania and also known as Costea Sar, and Petre Malcoci, he became an apatrid after leaving Romania in 1952. Biography Born ...
, Paul Păun, and
Dolfi Trost Dolfi or Dolphi Trost (1916 in Brăila – 1966 in Chicago, Illinois) was a Romanian surrealist poet, artist, and theorist, and the instigator of entopic graphomania. Together with Gherasim Luca, he was the author of '' Dialectique de la di ...
and it was in this period that Celan developed pseudonyms both for himself and his friends, including the one he took as his pen name. Here he also met with the poets
Rose Ausländer Rose Ausländer (born Rosalie Beatrice Scherzer; May 11, 1901 – January 3, 1988) was a Jewish poet writing in German and English. Born in Czernowitz in the Bukovina, she lived through its tumultuous history of belonging to the Austro-Hungarian E ...
and , elements of whose works he would reuse in his poem "
Todesfuge "" (Deathfugue) is a German language poem written by the Romanian-born poet Paul Celan probably around 1945 and first published in 1948. It is one of his best-known and often-anthologized poems. Despite critics claiming that the lyrical finesse an ...
" (1944–45). A version of Celan's poem "Todesfuge" appeared as "" ("Death
Tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...
") in a Romanian translation of May 1947. Additional remarks were published explaining that the dancing and musical performances evoked in the poem were images of realities of the
extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
life.


Emigration and Paris years

On the emergence of the communist regime in Romania, Celan fled Romania for Vienna, Austria. It was there that he befriended
Ingeborg Bachmann Ingeborg Bachmann (25 June 1926 – 17 October 1973) was an Austrian poet and author. Biography Bachmann was born in Klagenfurt, in the Austrian state of Carinthia, the daughter of Olga (née Haas) and Matthias Bachmann, a schoolteacher. Her fa ...
, who had just completed a dissertation on
Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...
. Facing a city divided between occupying powers and with little resemblance to the mythic capital it once was, which had harboured the (now) shattered Austro-Hungarian Jewish community, he moved to Paris in 1948. In that year his first poetry collection, ''
Der Sand aus den Urnen ''Der Sand aus den Urnen'' (in English, ''The Sand from the Urns''), is a German-language poetry collection by Paul Celan, published in Vienna in 1948. It was the first publication of Celan in German, and contains one of his best-known poems, " To ...
'' ("Sand from the Urns"), was published in Vienna by A. Sexl. His first few years in Paris were marked by intense feelings of loneliness and isolation, as expressed in letters to his colleagues, including his longtime friend from Cernăuţi, Petre Solomon. It was also during this time that he exchanged many letters with Diet Kloos, a young Dutch singer and anti-Nazi resister who saw her husband of a few months tortured to death. She visited Celan twice in Paris between 1949 and 1951. In 1952, Celan's writing began to gain recognition when he read his poetry on his first reading trip to Germany where he was invited to read at the semiannual meetings of
Group 47 Gruppe 47 (Group 47) was a group of participants in German writers' meetings, invited by Hans Werner Richter between 1947 and 1967. The meetings served the dual goals of literary criticism as well as the promotion of young, unknown authors. In a de ...
. At their May meeting he read his poem ''
Todesfuge "" (Deathfugue) is a German language poem written by the Romanian-born poet Paul Celan probably around 1945 and first published in 1948. It is one of his best-known and often-anthologized poems. Despite critics claiming that the lyrical finesse an ...
'' ("Death Fugue"), a depiction of concentration camp life. When
Ingeborg Bachmann Ingeborg Bachmann (25 June 1926 – 17 October 1973) was an Austrian poet and author. Biography Bachmann was born in Klagenfurt, in the Austrian state of Carinthia, the daughter of Olga (née Haas) and Matthias Bachmann, a schoolteacher. Her fa ...
, with whom Celan had an affair, won the group's prize for her collection ' (''The Extended Hours''), Celan (whose work had received only six votes) said "After the meeting, only six people remembered my name". He did not attend any other meeting of the group. In November 1951, he met the
graphic artist A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, p ...
Gisèle Lestrange Gisèle Lestrange or Gisèle de Lestrange, and after marriage, Gisèle Celan-Lestrange (19 March 1927 – 9 December 1991), was a French graphic artist. Biography Born in Paris, Lestrange studied drawing and painting at the Académie Julian in ...
, in Paris. He sent her many love letters, influenced by
Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...
's correspondence with
Milena Jesenská Milena Jesenská (; 10 August 1896 – 17 May 1944) was a Czech journalist, writer, editor and translator. Early life Jesenská was born in Prague, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic). Her family is believed to descend from Jan Jesenius, th ...
and
Felice Bauer Felice Bauer (18 November 1887 – 15 October 1960) was a fiancée of Franz Kafka, whose letters to her were published as ''Letters to Felice''. Early life Felice Bauer was born in Neustadt in Upper Silesia (today Prudnik), into a Jewish f ...
. They married on 21 December 1952, despite the opposition of her aristocratic family. During the following 18 years they wrote over 700 letters; amongst the active correspondents of Celan were
Hermann Lenz Hermann Karl Lenz (26 February 1913 – 12 May 1998) was a German writer of poetry, stories, and novels. A major part of his work is a series of nine semi-autobiographical novels centring on his alter ego "Eugen Rapp", a cycle that is also known ...
and his wife, Hanne. He made his living as a translator and lecturer in German at the
École normale supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...
. He was a close friend of
Nelly Sachs Nelly Sachs (; 10 December 1891 – 12 May 1970) was a German-Swedish poet and playwright. Her experiences resulting from the rise of the Nazis in World War II Europe transformed her into a poignant spokesperson for the grief and yearnings of he ...
, who later won the Nobel Prize for literature. Celan became a French citizen in 1955 and lived in Paris. Celan's sense of persecution increased after the widow of a friend, the French-German poet
Yvan Goll Yvan Goll (also: Iwan Goll, Ivan Goll; born Isaac Lang; 29 March 1891 – 27 February 1950) was a French-German poet who was bilingual and wrote in both French and German. He had close ties to both German expressionism and to French surrealism ...
, unjustly accused him of having plagiarised her husband's work. Celan was awarded the Bremen Literature Prize in 1958 and the
Georg Büchner Prize The Georg Büchner Prize (german: link=no, Georg-Büchner-Preis) is the most important literary prize for German language literature, along with the Goethe Prize. The award is named after dramatist and writer Georg Büchner, author of '' Woyzeck ...
in 1960. Celan drowned himself in the river
Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributarie ...
in Paris around 20 April 1970.


Poetry and poetics

The death of his parents and the experience of the Shoah (
The Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
) are defining forces in Celan's poetry and his use of language. In his Bremen Prize speech, Celan said of language after
Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
that: Celan also said: "There is nothing in the world for which a poet will give up writing, not even when he is a Jew and the language of his poems is German." His most famous poem, the early "
Todesfuge "" (Deathfugue) is a German language poem written by the Romanian-born poet Paul Celan probably around 1945 and first published in 1948. It is one of his best-known and often-anthologized poems. Despite critics claiming that the lyrical finesse an ...
", is a work of great complexity and power, which may have drawn some key motifs from the poem "ER" by , another Czernovitz poet.Enzo Rostagn
"Paul Celan et la poésie de la destruction"
in "L'Histoire déchirée. Essai sur Auschwitz et les intellectuels", Les
Éditions du Cerf ''Éditions du Cerf'' (French: "Editions of the Deer") is a French publishing house specializing in religious books. It was founded in 1929, and operated by the Dominican Order. The name is a reference to Psalm 42 (41): As the hart panteth ...
1997 (), in French.
The characters of Margarete and Sulamith, with their respectively golden and ashen hair, can be interpreted as a reflection of Celan's Jewish-German culture, while the blue-eyed "Master from Germany" embodies German Nazism. In later years his poetry became progressively more cryptic, fractured and monosyllabic, bearing comparison to the music of
Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stea ...
. He also increased his use of German
neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
s, especially in his later works ''
Fadensonnen ''Fadensonnen'' is a 1968 German-language poetry collection by Paul Celan. It has been translated by Pierre Joris as ''Threadsuns'', and by others as ''Twinesuns'' and ''Fathomsuns''. It was published in English in its entirety in 2000, though pa ...
'' ("Threadsuns") and ''
Lichtzwang ''Lichtzwang'' (rendered in English as ''Lightduress'') is a 1970 German-language poetry collection by Paul Celan. It was written in 1967, and published three months after Celan's death. It was published in an English translation in 2005 by Gree ...
''. In the eyes of some, Celan attempted in his poetry either to destroy or remake the German language. For others, he retained a sense for the lyricism of the German language which was rare in writers of that time. As he writes in a letter to his wife Gisèle Lestrange on one of his trips to Germany: "The German I talk is not the same as the language the German people are talking here". Writing in German was a way for him to think back and remember his parents, particularly his mother, from whom he had learned the language. This is underlined in "" (Lupin), a poem in which Paul Celan addresses his mother. The urgency and power of Celan's work stem from his attempt to find words "after", to bear (impossible) witness in a language that gives back no words "for that which happened". In addition to writing poetry (in German and, earlier, in Romanian), he was an extremely active translator and
polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingualism, monolingual speakers in the World population, world's pop ...
, translating literature from Romanian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Hebrew, and English into German.


Awards

* Bremen Literature Prize 1958 *
Georg Büchner Prize The Georg Büchner Prize (german: link=no, Georg-Büchner-Preis) is the most important literary prize for German language literature, along with the Goethe Prize. The award is named after dramatist and writer Georg Büchner, author of '' Woyzeck ...
1960


Significance

Based on the reception of his work, it could be suggested that Celan, along with
Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
, Hölderlin and Rilke, is one of the most significant German poets who ever lived. Despite the difficulty of his work, his poetry is thoroughly researched, the total number of scholarly papers numbering in the thousands. Many contemporary philosophers, including
Maurice Blanchot Maurice Blanchot (; ; 22 September 1907 – 20 February 2003) was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on pos ...
,
Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...
,
Hans-Georg Gadamer Hans-Georg Gadamer (; ; February 11, 1900 – March 13, 2002) was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 ''magnum opus'', '' Truth and Method'' (''Wahrheit und Methode''), on hermeneutics. Life Family ...
and others have devoted at least one of their books to his writing.


Bibliography


In German

* ''
Der Sand aus den Urnen ''Der Sand aus den Urnen'' (in English, ''The Sand from the Urns''), is a German-language poetry collection by Paul Celan, published in Vienna in 1948. It was the first publication of Celan in German, and contains one of his best-known poems, " To ...
'' (''The Sand from the Urns'', 1948) * ''
Mohn und Gedächtnis ''Mohn und Gedächtnis'' is a 1952 German-language poetry collection by Paul Celan. It has been translated into English by Michael Hamburger as ''Poppy and Memory''. It includes ''Todesfuge "" (Deathfugue) is a German language poem written by th ...
'' (''Poppy and Memory'', 1952) * '' Von Schwelle zu Schwelle'' (''From Threshold to Threshold'', 1955) * ''
Sprachgitter ''Sprachgitter'' is a 1959 German-language poetry collection by Paul Celan, published by S. Fischer Verlag. It was translated to English by Joachim Groschel in 1971 as ''Speech-Grille'', and as ''Language Mesh'' by Michael Hamburger Michael Pe ...
'' (''Speechwicket'' / ''Speech Grille'', 1959) * '' Die Niemandsrose'' (''The No-One's-Rose'', 1963) * '' Atemwende'' (''Breathturn'', 1967) * ''
Fadensonnen ''Fadensonnen'' is a 1968 German-language poetry collection by Paul Celan. It has been translated by Pierre Joris as ''Threadsuns'', and by others as ''Twinesuns'' and ''Fathomsuns''. It was published in English in its entirety in 2000, though pa ...
'' (''Threadsuns'' / ''Twinesuns'' / ''Fathomsuns'', 1968) * ''
Lichtzwang ''Lichtzwang'' (rendered in English as ''Lightduress'') is a 1970 German-language poetry collection by Paul Celan. It was written in 1967, and published three months after Celan's death. It was published in an English translation in 2005 by Gree ...
'' (''Lightduress'' / ''Light-Compulsion'', 1970) * ''
Schneepart ''Schneepart'' (rendered in English as ''Snow Part'') is a 1971 German-language poetry collection by Paul Celan. It was published in an English translation in 2007. Publication The book was published in Germany posthumously in 1971 by Suhrkamp Ve ...
'' (''Snow Part'' osthumous 1971) * '' Zeitgehöft'' (''Timestead'' / ''Homestead of Time'' osthumous 1976)


Translations

Celan's poetry has been translated into English, with many of the volumes being bilingual. The most comprehensive collections are from John Felstiner,
Pierre Joris Pierre Joris (born July 14, 1946) is a Luxembourg-American poet, essayist, translator, and anthologist. He has moved between Europe, North Africa & the US for 55 years, publishing over 80 books of poetry, essays, translations & anthologies — mo ...
, and
Michael Hamburger Michael Peter Leopold Hamburger (22 March 1924 – 7 June 2007) was a noted German-British translator, poet, critic, memoirist and academic. He was known in particular for his translations of Friedrich Hölderlin, Paul Celan, Gottfried Benn and ...
, who revised his translations of Celan over a period of two decades. Susan H. Gillespie and Ian Fairley have released English translations. Joris has also translated Celan's German poems into French: * ''"Speech-Grille" and Selected Poems'', translated by
Joachim Neugroschel Joachim Neugroschel (13 January 1938—23 May 2011) was a Multilingualism, multilingual Translation#Literary translation, literary translator of French language, French, German language, German, Italian language, Italian, Russian language, Russi ...
(1971) * ''Nineteen Poems by Paul Celan'', translated by Michael Hamburger (1972) * ''Paul Celan, 65 Poems'', translated by Brian Lynch and Peter Jankowsky (1985) * ''Last Poems'', translated by Katharine Washburn and Margret Guillemin (1986) * ''Collected Prose'', edited by
Rosmarie Waldrop Rosmarie Waldrop (born Rosmarie Sebald; August 24, 1935) is an American poet, novelist, translator, essayist and publisher. Born in Germany, she has lived in the United States since 1958 and has settled in Providence, Rhode Island since the lat ...
(1986) * ''Atemwende/Breathturn'', translated by Pierre Joris (1995) * ''Paul Celan,
Nelly Sachs Nelly Sachs (; 10 December 1891 – 12 May 1970) was a German-Swedish poet and playwright. Her experiences resulting from the rise of the Nazis in World War II Europe transformed her into a poignant spokesperson for the grief and yearnings of he ...
: Correspondence'', translated by Christopher Clark, edited with an introduction by John Felstiner (1998) * ''Glottal Stop: 101 Poems'', translated by Nikolai B. Popov and
Heather McHugh Heather McHugh (born August 20, 1948) is an American poet notable for the independent ranges of her aesthetic as a poet, and for her working devotion to teaching and translating literature. Life Heather McHugh, a poet, translator, educator and ...
(2000) (winner of the 2001 International
Griffin Poetry Prize The Griffin Poetry Prize is Canada's most generous poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. Before 2022, the awards went to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language. ...
) * * ''Poems of Paul Celan: A Bilingual German/English Edition, Revised Edition'', translated by Michael Hamburger (2001) * ''Fathomsuns/Fadensonnen and Benighted/Eingedunkelt'', translated by Ian Fairley (2001) * ''Paul Celan: Selections'', edited and with an introduction by Pierre Joris (2005) * ''Lichtzwang/Lightduress'', translated and with an introduction by Pierre Joris, a bilingual edition (
Green Integer Green Integer is an American publishing house of pocket-sized belles-lettres books, based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1997 by Douglas Messerli, whose former publishing house was Sun & Moon, and it is edited by Per Bregne. Gre ...
, 2005) * ''Snow Part'', translated by Ian Fairley (2007) * ''From Threshold to Threshold'', translated by David Young (2010) * ''Paul Celan,
Ingeborg Bachmann Ingeborg Bachmann (25 June 1926 – 17 October 1973) was an Austrian poet and author. Biography Bachmann was born in Klagenfurt, in the Austrian state of Carinthia, the daughter of Olga (née Haas) and Matthias Bachmann, a schoolteacher. Her fa ...
: Correspondence'', translated by Wieland Hoban (2010) * ''The Correspondence of Paul Celan and Ilana Shmueli'', translated by Susan H. Gillespie with a preface by John Felstiner (2011) * ''The Meridian: Final Version – Drafts – Materials'', edited by Bernhard Böschenstein and Heino Schmull, translated by Pierre Joris (2011) * ''Corona: Selected Poems of Paul Celan'', translated by Susan H. Gillespie (Station Hill of Barrytown, 2013) *''Breathturn into Timestead: The Collected Later Poetry: A Bilingual Edition'', translated by Pierre Joris (2015) * ''Something is still present and isn't, of what's gone. A bilingual anthology of avant-garde and avant-garde inspired Rumanian poetry'', (translated by Victor Pambuccian), Aracne editrice, Rome, 2018. *''Microliths They Are, Little Stones: Posthumous Prose'', translated by Pierre Joris (2020) *''Memory Rose Into Threshold Speech: The Collected Earlier Poetry, A Bilingual Edition'', translated by Pierre Joris (2020)


In Romanian

* ', Andrei Corbea Hoişie


Bilingual

* ''Paul Celan. /'', editor Andrei Corbea Hoişie * Schneepart / Snøpart. Translated 2012 to Norwegian by Anders Bærheim and Cornelia Simon


Writers translated by Celan

*
Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...
*
Tudor Arghezi Tudor Arghezi (; 21 May 1880 – 14 July 1967) was a Romanian writer, best known for his unique contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest, he explained that his pen name was related to ''Argesis'', th ...
*
Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...
*
Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
*
Alexander Blok Alexander Alexandrovich Blok ( rus, Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Бло́к, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈblok, a=Ru-Alyeksandr Alyeksandrovich Blok.oga; 7 August 1921) was a Russian lyrical poet, writer, publ ...
*
André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...
*
Jean Cayrol Jean Cayrol (; 6 June 1911 – 10 February 2005) was a French poet, publisher, and member of the Académie Goncourt born in Bordeaux. He is perhaps best known for writing the narration in Alain Resnais's 1955 documentary film, ''Night and Fog''. H ...
*
Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He founded the Par ...
* René Char *
Emil Cioran Emil Mihai Cioran (, ; 8 April 1911 – 20 June 1995) was a Romanian philosopher, aphorist and essayist, who published works in both Romanian and French. His work has been noted for its pervasive philosophical pessimism, style, and aphorisms. H ...
*
Jean Daive Jean Daive (born 13 May 1941) is a French poet and translator. He is the author of novels, collections of poetry and has translated work by Paul Celan and Robert Creeley among others. He has edited encyclopedias, worked as a radio journalist an ...
*
Robert Desnos Robert Desnos (; 4 July 1900 – 8 June 1945) was a French poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement of his day. Biography Robert Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900, the son of a licensed dealer in game and poultry at the '' H ...
*
Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massach ...
*
John Donne John Donne ( ; 22 January 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a clergy, cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's ...
* André du Bouchet * Jacques Dupin *
Paul Éluard Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...
*
Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...
*
Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg () (January 16, 1909 – May 7, 1994), occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formali ...
*
A. E. Housman Alfred Edward Housman (; 26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936) was an English classical scholar and poet. After an initially poor performance while at university, he took employment as a clerk in London and established his academic reputation by pub ...
*
Velimir Khlebnikov Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov, better known by the pen name Velimir Khlebnikov ( rus, Велими́р Хле́бников, p=vʲɪlʲɪˈmʲir ˈxlʲɛbnʲɪkəf; – 28 June 1922) was a Russian poet and playwright, a central part of th ...
*
Maurice Maeterlinck Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...
*
Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of ...
*
Osip Mandelstam Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam ( rus, Осип Эмильевич Мандельштам, p=ˈosʲɪp ɨˈmʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mənʲdʲɪlʲˈʂtam; – 27 December 1938) was a Russian and Soviet poet. He was one of the foremost members of the A ...
*
Andrew Marvell Andrew Marvell (; 31 March 1621 – 16 August 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. During the Commonwealth period he was a colleague and friend ...
*
Henri Michaux Henri Michaux (; 24 May 1899 – 19 October 1984) was a Belgian-born French poet, writer and painter. Michaux is renowned for his strange, highly original poetry and prose, and also for his art: the Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim ...
*
Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. Early life Moore was born in Kirkwood ...
*
Gellu Naum Gellu Naum (1 August 1915 – 29 September 2001) was a Romanian poet, dramatist, novelist, children's writer, and translator. He is remembered as the founder of the Romanian Surrealist group. The artist Lygia Naum, his wife, was the inspiration a ...
*
Gérard de Nerval Gérard de Nerval (; 22 May 1808 – 26 January 1855) was the pen name of the French writer, poet, and translator Gérard Labrunie, a major figure of French romanticism, best known for his novellas and poems, especially the collection '' Les ...
* *
Benjamin Péret Benjamin Péret (4 July 1899 – 18 September 1959) was a French poet, Parisian Dadaist and a founder and central member of the French Surrealist movement with his avid use of Surrealist automatism. Biography Benjamin Péret was born in Rezé, ...
*
Fernando Pessoa Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher, and philosopher, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and ...
*
Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
*
Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he start ...
* *
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
*
Georges Simenon Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (; 13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer. He published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, and was the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret. Early life and education ...
*
Jules Supervielle Jules Supervielle (16 January 1884 – 17 May 1960) was a Franco-Uruguayan poet and writer born in Montevideo. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times. He opposed the surrealism movement in poetry and rejected automatic wri ...
* *
Giuseppe Ungaretti Giuseppe Ungaretti (; 8 February 1888 – 2 June 1970) was an Italian modernist poet, journalist, essayist, critic, academic, and recipient of the inaugural 1970 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. A leading representative of the experi ...
*
Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, mus ...
* Sergei Yesenin *
Yevgeny Yevtushenko Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko ( rus, links=no, 1=Евге́ний Алекса́ндрович Евтуше́нко; 18 July 1933 – 1 April 2017) was a Soviet and Russian poet. He was also a novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, ...


About translations

About translating David Rokeah from Hebrew, Celan wrote: "David Rokeah was here for two days, I have translated two poems for him, mediocre stuff, and given him comments on other German translation, suggested improvements ... I was glad, probably in the wrong place, to be able to decipher and translate a Hebrew text."


Biographies

* ''Paul Celan: A Biography of His Youth'' Israel Chalfen, intro. John Felstiner, trans. Maximilian Bleyleben (New York: Persea Books, 1991) * ''Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor, Jew,'' John Felstiner (Yale University Press, 1995)


Selected criticism

* ''Word Traces'',
Aris Fioretos Aris Fioretos (born 6 February 1960 in Gothenburg) is a Swedish writer of Greek and Austrian extraction. Biography Aris Fioretos was born in Gothenburg. His Greek father was a professor of medicine, his Austrian mother ran a gallery. At hom ...
(ed.), includes contributions by
Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...
,
Werner Hamacher Werner Hamacher (, 1948 – 2017) was a German literary critic and theorist influenced by deconstruction. Hamacher studied philosophy, comparative literature and religious studies at the Free University of Berlin and the École Normale Supérieu ...
, and
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe ( , ; 6 March 1940 – 28 January 2007) was a French philosopher. He was also a literary critic and translator. Lacoue-Labarthe published several influential works with his friend Jean-Luc Nancy. Lacoue-Labarthe wa ...
(1994) * ''Gadamer on Celan: 'Who Am I and Who Are You?' and Other Essays'',
Hans-Georg Gadamer Hans-Georg Gadamer (; ; February 11, 1900 – March 13, 2002) was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 ''magnum opus'', '' Truth and Method'' (''Wahrheit und Methode''), on hermeneutics. Life Family ...
(trans.) and Richard Heinemann and Bruce Krajewski (eds.) (1997) * ''Poetry as Experience''
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe ( , ; 6 March 1940 – 28 January 2007) was a French philosopher. He was also a literary critic and translator. Lacoue-Labarthe published several influential works with his friend Jean-Luc Nancy. Lacoue-Labarthe wa ...
, Andrea Tarnowski (trans.) (1999) * ''Economy of the Unlost: Reading
Simonides Simonides of Ceos (; grc-gre, Σιμωνίδης ὁ Κεῖος; c. 556–468 BC) was a Greek lyric poet, born in Ioulis on Ceos. The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of the nine lyric poets esteemed ...
of Keos with Paul Celan'', Carson, Anne. Princeton: Princeton University Press (1999) * ''Zur Poetik Paul Celans: Gedicht und Mensch - die Arbeit am Sinn'', Marko Pajević. Universitätsverlag C. Winter, Heidelberg (2000). * ''Poésie contre poésie. Celan et la littérature'',
Jean Bollack Jean Bollack (15 March 1923 – 4 December 2012) was a French philosopher, philologist and literary critic. Biography He first studied classical philology at the University of Basel, among others with and Albert Béguin, and from 1945 at the ...
. PUF (2001) * ''Celan Studies'' Péter Szondi;
Susan Bernofsky Susan Bernofsky (born 1966) is an American translator of German-language literature and author. She is best known for bringing the Swiss writer Robert Walser to the attention of the English-speaking world, translating many of his books and writi ...
and Harvey Mendelsohn (trans.) (2003) * ''L'écrit : une poétique dans l'oeuvre de Celan'', Jean Bollack. PUF (2003) * ''Paul Celan et Martin Heidegger: le sens d'un dialogue'', Hadrien France-Lanord (2004) * ''Words from Abroad: Trauma and Displacement in Postwar German Jewish Writers'', Katja Garloff (2005) * ''Sovereignties in Question: the Poetics of Paul Celan'', Jacques Derrida (trans.), Thomas Dutoit and Outi Pasanen (eds.), a collection of mostly late works, including "Rams," which is also a memorial essay on Gadamer and his ''Who Am I and Who Are You?'', and a new translation of ''Schibboleth'' (2005) * ''Paul Celan and Martin Heidegger: An Unresolved Conversation, 1951–1970'', James K. Lyon (2006) * ''
Anselm Kiefer Anselm Kiefer (born 8 March 1945) is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Peter Dreher and Horst Antes at the end of the 1960s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. The poems of Paul Celan hav ...
/Paul Celan. Myth, Mourning and Memory'', Andréa Lauterwein. With 157 illustrations, 140 in colour. Thames & Hudson, London. (2007) * ''Sites of the Uncanny: Paul Celan, Specularity and the Visual Arts'', Eric Kligerman. Berlin and New York (Interdisciplinary German Cultural Studies, 3) (2007) * ''Vor Morgen. Bachmann und Celan. Die Minne im Angesicht der Morde''. Arnau Pons in ''Kultur & Genspenster''. Heft Nr. 10. (2010) * ''Das Gesicht des Gerechten. Paul Celan besucht Friedrich Dürrenmatt'', Werner Wögerbauer in ''Kultur & Genspenster''. Heft Nr. 10. (2010) * ''Poetry as Individuality: The Discourse of Observation in Paul Celan'', Derek Hillard. Bucknell University Press. (2010) * ''Vor Morgen. Bachmann und Celan. Die Minne im Angesicht der Morde'', Arnau Pons in ''Kultur & Genspenster''. Heft Nr. 10. (2010) * ''Still Songs: Music In and Around the Poetry of Paul Celan'', Axel Englund. Farnham: Ashgate. (2012) * ''
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
and Celan: A very brief comparative Study'', Pinaki Roy in ''Yearly Shakespeare'' (ISSN 0976-9536) (xviii): 118-24. (2020)


Audio-visual


Recordings

* ', readings of his original compositions * ', readings of his translations of
Osip Mandelstam Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam ( rus, Осип Эмильевич Мандельштам, p=ˈosʲɪp ɨˈmʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mənʲdʲɪlʲˈʂtam; – 27 December 1938) was a Russian and Soviet poet. He was one of the foremost members of the A ...
and Sergei Yesenin * ''Six Celan Songs'', texts of his poems , sung by
Ute Lemper Ute Gertrud Lemper (; born 4 July 1963) is a German singer and actress. Her roles in musicals include playing Sally Bowles in the original Paris production of ''Cabaret'', for which she won the 1987 Molière Award for Best Newcomer, and Velm ...
, set to music by
Michael Nyman Michael Laurence Nyman, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, libretto, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film soundtrack, scores (many written during his length ...
* ''Tenebrae'' (') from ' (1998) of Marcus Ludwig, sung by the
ensemble amarcord amarcord is a German male classical vocal ensemble based in Leipzig, founded in 1992 by five former members of the Thomanerchor. They primarily perform Medieval music, Renaissance music as well as collaborating with contemporary composers. Unt ...
* "" (from '), "Zähle die Mandeln" (from '), "Psalm" (from '), set to music by
Giya Kancheli Gia Kancheli ( ka, გია ყანჩელი; 10 August 1935 – 2 October 2019) was a Georgian composer. He was born in Tbilisi, Georgia but resided in Belgium. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kancheli lived first in ...
as parts II–IV of ''Exil'', sung by Maacha Deubner, ECM (1995) * ''Pulse Shadows'' by
Harrison Birtwistle Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include ''Th ...
; nine settings of poems by Celan, interleaved with nine pieces for string quartet (one of which is an instrumental setting of "Todesfuge").


Reviews

*Dove, Richard (1981), ''Mindus Inversus'', review of ''Selected Poems'' translated by Michael Humburger. in Murray, Glen (ed.), ''
Cencrastus ''Cencrastus'' was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a ...
'' No. 7, Winter 1981-82, p. 48,


Further reading

*John Felstiner "Writing Zion" Paul Celan and Yehuda Amichai: An Exchange between Two Great Poets, ''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'', 5 June 2006 * John Felstiner, "Paul Celan and
Yehuda Amichai Yehuda Amichai ( he, יהודה עמיחי; born Ludwig Pfeuffer 3 May 1924 – 22 September 2000) was an Israeli poet and author, one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew in modern times. Amichai was awarded the 1957 Shlonsky Prize, the ...
: An Exchange between Two Great Poets", ''
Midstream The oil and gas industry is usually divided into three major components: upstream, midstream and downstream. The midstream sector involves the transportation (by pipeline, rail, barge, oil tanker or truck), storage, and wholesale marketing of crud ...
'', vol. 53, no. 1 (Jan.–Feb. 2007) * Daive, Jean. ''Under The Dome: Walks with Paul Celan'' (tr.
Rosmarie Waldrop Rosmarie Waldrop (born Rosmarie Sebald; August 24, 1935) is an American poet, novelist, translator, essayist and publisher. Born in Germany, she has lived in the United States since 1958 and has settled in Providence, Rhode Island since the lat ...
), Providence, Rhode Island: Burning Deck, 2009. *
Mario Kopić Mario Kopić (born 13 March 1965) is a philosopher, author and translator. His main areas of interest include: the history of ideas, the philosophy of art, the philosophy of culture, phenomenology and the philosophy of religion. Kopić is infl ...
: "Amfiteater v Freiburgu, julija 1967", Arendt, Heidegger, Celan, Apokalipsa, 153–154, 2011 (Slovenian) *Hana Amichai: "The leap between the yet and the not any more", Yehuda Amichai and Paul Celan, ''
Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...
'', 6 April 2012 (Hebrew) *Aquilina, Mario, ''The Event of Style in Literature'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) *Daive, Jean. ''Albiach / Celan'' (author, tr. Donald Wellman),
Anne-Marie Albiach Anne-Marie Albiach (9 August 1937 – 4 November 2012) was a contemporary French poet and translator. Overview Anne-Marie Albiach's was a renowned French poet and writer born in Saint -Nazaire, France on 9 August 1937. Anne- Marie Albiach ...
(author), (tr. Julian Kabza), Ann Arbor, Michigan: Annex Press, 2017.


External links

* Selected Celan exhibits, sites, homepages on the web *
Link to the new site



Overview at Littlebluelight.com

Limited-edition of Paul Celan's reading before the German literary club, Group 47, from The Shackman Press

Spike Magazine's analysis on the writing of Celan


Selected poetry, poems, poetics on the web (English translations of Celan)

Jerry Glenn (copious bibliography, through 1995, in German) * Recent Celan essays by John Felstiner: 1
"Paul Celan Meets Samuel Beckett"
''American Poetry Review'', July/August 2004 & poetrydaily.org, 6 July 2004; 2
"Writing Zion: An Exchange between Celan and Amichai"
''New Republic'', 12 June 2006
"Paul Celan and Yehuda Amichai: An Exchange on Nation and Exile"
wordswithoutborders.org; 3
"The One and Only Circle: Paul Celan's Letters to Gisèle"
''Fiction'' 54, 2008 and
expanded
) Mantis, 2009

featured on
Pierre Joris Pierre Joris (born July 14, 1946) is a Luxembourg-American poet, essayist, translator, and anthologist. He has moved between Europe, North Africa & the US for 55 years, publishing over 80 books of poetry, essays, translations & anthologies — mo ...
's blog, this is a page of notes, fragments, sketches for sentences, etc., Celan took when preparing a radio-essay on Osip Mandelstam. However, as Joris points out: "some of the thinking reappears, transformed, in the Meridian".
"Four New Translations of Paul Celan", by Ian Fairley in ''Guernica Magazine''






in the original German with a translation into English by Ana Elsner
"Dissertation on the French Reception of Celan"


one of seven poems translated from the German by Heather McHugh and Nikolai Popov, originally published in ''
Jubilat ''jubilat'' is a widely distributed, highly acclaimed American poetry and prose journal headquartered at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. First published in 2000, it was founded by Rob Casper, Christian Hawkey, Michael Teig and Kelly LeF ...
''
Extract from ''Lightduress'' (Cycle 6)
translated by
Pierre Joris Pierre Joris (born July 14, 1946) is a Luxembourg-American poet, essayist, translator, and anthologist. He has moved between Europe, North Africa & the US for 55 years, publishing over 80 books of poetry, essays, translations & anthologies — mo ...
; originally published by ''
Samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...
''
''Dan Kaufman & Barbez music recorded an album based upon the life and poems of Paul Celan''
published on the Tzadik label in the series of Radical Jewish Culture.

Cal Kinnear translates Paul Celan Selected multimedia presentations

* [http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/see-and-hear-poetry/h-n/heather-mchugh/ Griffin Poetry Prize reading by Nikolai Popov and Heather McHugh from Glottal Stop: 101 Poems by Paul Celan, including video clip]


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Celan, Paul 1920 births 1970 suicides Writers from Chernivtsi École Normale Supérieure faculty German-language poets Jewish poets French people of Romanian-Jewish descent Romanian emigrants to France Jewish Romanian writers Bukovina Jews Romanian male poets French male poets Romanian translators Romanian writers in French Romanian writers in German French writers in German Suicides by drowning in France Georg Büchner Prize winners Nazi-era ghetto inmates Jewish concentration camp survivors 20th-century French translators 20th-century Romanian poets 20th-century French poets Translators of William Shakespeare French male dramatists and playwrights Forced labourers under German rule during World War II