Category: Paul Celan
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“Black Flakes / Schwarze Flocken:” Celan & Ukraine
This poem, probably written in or after July 1944, most likely in Czernowitz, today Chernivtsi, after returning from the forced labor-camp he had been interned in. The ms. has his note: “In memory of the snow at railway station Pascani, workcamp Radazani,” referring to the village of Pascani in Moldavia. It was probably then that […]
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A Poem or something, a gift, a song, for Paul Celan at 100
Her hand giant shadow — mit Bleistift on ceiling with night reading light pillowed between us — graphites an unseen page, on which I’ll write, standing up in the kitchen, the good, no the best thing about night is it is […]
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Paul Celan: Fifty Years Later: Tenebrae & 5 More
It was exactly 50 years ago, on the night of 19 to 20 April 1970 that Paul Celan left his apartment on the avenue Emile Zola, and succumbed to his psychic demons: the Pont Mirabeau (an actual bridge over the Seine that is also a poem by Apollinaire) is where he decided to put an end to […]
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On Paul Verlaine’s 172nd birthday…
…here — via the very useful Lyrikzeitung & Poetry News — is a translation of Verlaine’s most famous (& famously untranslatable) poem Chanson d’automne into Yiddish by Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger. Born in Czernowitz in 1924, this young woman, a cousin of Paul Celan’s (they would on occasion meet and sing together & talk poetry at Celan’s grandfather’s brother house on Sabbat evenings), […]
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Paul Celan and the Meaning of Language — An Interview with Pierre Joris
Above right: Paul Celan, passport photo Breathturn into Timestead: The Collected Later Poetry of Paul Celan A Bilingual Edition Translated and with Commentary by Pierre Joris Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 736 pages,ISBN-10: 0374125988 Doug Valentine with Pierre Joris Paul Celan and the Meaning of Language An Interview with Pierre Joris There is great […]
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PJ & NP: On The Road Again…
…SAN FRANCISCO, OAKLAND, MINNEAPOLIS, PRINCETON, NYC, SETE, MARSEILLES, BARJOLS, AIX-EN-PROVENCE, PARIS… Our next four months are filled with truly exciting performances, readings, screenings, collaborations, book launches, art shows & we sure are looking forward to see you here or there. Meanwhile, thank you for your support & happy spring — keep in touch! Nicole & Pierre SAN-FRANCISCO Wednesday, […]
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“Meridian” Translation awarded Scaglione Prize
Here’s what the jury had to say about their choice: Paul Celan’s The Meridian was originally delivered as an acceptance speech to the German Academy for Language and Poetry, which had honored him in 1960 with its Georg Büchner Prize for Literature. It ranks as its author’s most powerful statement concerning the mysterious but powerful […]
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Talking of Celan in Philadelphia Tomorrow
THE HOLOCAUST EXPERIENCE IN THE POETRY OF PAUL CELAN A conversation with Pierre Joris, moderated by Al Filreis KELLY WRITERS HOUSE Wexler Family Program 6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe hosted by: Al Filreis I’ll be in conversation with Al Filreis concerning what I consider the very often oversimplified views of the experience of Khurbn — […]
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Two Uncollected Poems by Paul Celan
As I work on commentaries for my collected Paul Celan translations (not a Complete Collected Celan, just all my translations starting with Breathturn) a few poems never included in any volume, though now gathered in the German Collected Editions, seemed relevant to include among the annotations. Here are two of these, from the time of SNOWPART ( i.e. […]
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Jean Bollack (1923-2012)
When I think of Jean Bollack — philologist, philosopher, hermeneut, translator, commentator, friend to Paul Celan & irritant to many — the first word that comes to mind is “décrasser,” a French term that means to clean, to scrub or more powerfully, to scour, even dip into a bath of acid to remove the accumulated gangue of lazy […]
