Paul Celan (1920–70,) pseudonym of Paul Ancel or Antschel, was a Romanian-born Jewish poet whose works were written in German. He is widely regarded as one of the most critical and innovative poets of the 20th century. His work is marked by a distinctive lyrical intensity and a profound exploration of themes such as memory and identity, evoking the horrors of the Holocaust.
Born into the Jewish community in Cernăuți in Bukovina (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine,) then part of Romania, Celan studied in Romania and France. He survived a Nazi labor camp, though both his parents died, and later became a lecturer in German literature in Paris, taking French nationality.
The second collection of poems established Celan’s reputation, Mohn und Gedächtnis (1952, ‘Poppy and Memory,’) which includes his most famous poem, ‘Todesfuge’ (‘Death Fugue,’) about concentration camps. Sprachgitter (1959; Speech-Grille, 1971) and Die Niemondsrose (1963, ‘The No-One’s Rose’) reflect his ambiguous attitude to the Jewish God.
The French Surrealists and the French-German poet Yvan Goll (1891–1950) influenced the flowing style of Celan’s early work, but this became more concentrated in his later poems because of his wartime experiences.
Celan also translated French, Italian, and Russian poetry and the works of Shakespeare into German. Little of Celan’s work has appeared in English apart from his selection, Speech Grille and Selected Poems (1971,) translated as a tribute after his suicide by drowning. His poetry continues to be celebrated for its complex symbolism and its affirmation of the power of language to transcend historical trauma.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Paul Celan
Whenever we speak with things in this way (in poetry) we dwell on the question of their where-from and where-to, an open question without resolution.
—Paul Celan
Topics: Poetry
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