Paul Celan : Poet, Survivor, Jew

by John Felstiner

• ISBN13: 9780300089226
• ISBN10: 0300089228
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2001-02-08
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

This book is the first critical biography of Paul Celan, a German-speaking East European Jew who was Europe's most compelling postwar poet. It tells the story of Celan's life, offers new translations of his poems, and illuminates the connection between Celan's lived experience and his poetry.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	xv
Part One Stricken	1	(108)
Loss and the Mother Tongue (1920-43)	3	(19)
Childhood, war, Nazi occupation, forced labor, parents' deportation, ``Winter,'' ``Black Flakes''
A Fugue after Auschwitz (1944-45)	22	(20)
Return to Czernowitz, Soviet occupation, ``Nearness of Graves,''``Russian Spring,'' ``Deathfugue''
Song in the Wilderness (1945-48)	42	(15)
Emigration to Bucharest, ``A Song in the Wilderness,``Flight to Vienna, ``Corona,'' Der Sand aus den Urnen
``German'' Author in Exile (1948-53)	57	(20)
Settling in Paris, ``In Egypt,'' ``Count up the almonds,''Group 47, marriage, Mohn und Gedachtnis, Apollinaire and Moore translantions, ``In Front of a Candle,'' ``Remembrance''
Saying No To Say Yes (1953-54)	77	(15)
``Speak You Too,'' ``Shibboleth,''Von Schwelle zu Schwelle, ``The Vintagers''
Words That Will Not Heal (1954-57)	92	(17)
Night and Fog and Picasso translations, ``Voices,'' ``Tenebrae,'' ``Flower,'' ``Speech-Grille''
Part Two Seeking	109	(104)
Only Language through Memory (1958)	111	(15)
Bremen speech, ``Stretto''
The Other Voice Your Own (1958-59)	126	(21)
Esenin, Blok, Mandelshtam, Apollinaire, Marvell, Valery translations, Sprachgitter, ``Conversation in the Mountains''
With and Against the Pain (1959-60)	147	(23)
``There was earth inside them,'' Goll plagiarism campaign, Nelly Sachs, ``Zurich, at the Stork,'' Martin Buber, ``The Sluice,'' Meridian speech, ``Psalm''
Wrestling with the Angles (1961)	170	(15)
``Tubingen, January'' and Holderlin, ``A Rogues' and Swindlers' Ditty,'' ``Radix, Matrix,'' ``Benedicta,'' ``Mandorla,'' Kafka and the golem
Speaking East (1962)	185	(15)
``In One,'' ``Tabernacle Window,'' ``Everything is different,'' All poets are Yids, ``In the air,'' Die Niemandsrose, Rilke
Translation Counterpoint (1961-63)	200	(13)
Dickinson, Shakespeare, Frost translations
Part Three Reality	213	(80)
Etching and Alchemy (1963-65)	215	(13)
``In rivers,'' ``Threadsuns,'' ``Bitten away,'' ``No more sand art,'' ``In Prague,'' Adorno and Auschwitz, Atemwende
Crossing into Hebrew (1965-67)	228	(16)
``Frankfurt, September,'' psychiatric clinics, Fadensonnen, Aschrei, Gershom Scholem, ``Near, in the aorta's arch,'' Six-Day War and ``Just Think''
Prophecy out of Exile (1967)	244	(9)
Heidegger and ``Todtnauberg,'' ``You be like you,'' Lichtzwang
An Embabeled Tongue (1968-69)	253	(11)
Rosa Luxemburg, May 1968 and Prague, Rembrandt, ``Almonding one, ''Schneepart
To Name Jerusalem (1969)	264	(16)
Israel, Tel Aviv speech, return to Paris, Jerusalem poems, ``The trumpet place,'' ``The poles,'' ``I drink wine,'' Zeitgehoft
A Question of Last Things (1970)	280	(13)
Stuttgart and Holderlin, Kafka, ``Vinegrowers,'' aftermath
Notes	293	(40)
Index	333