Paul Celan on Jacket2

Paul Celan

Paul Celan’s “The Meridian: Final Version—Drafts—Materials”

tr. Pierre Joris, ed. Edited by Bernhard Böschenstein and Heino Schmull

Celan Meridian Cover

The Meridian speech is one of Paul Celan’s key works. This meticulous, fascinating, and, finally, compelling edition begins by unlocking what seems to be the work’s multifoliate nature. Ultimately, though, and with the help of Pierre Joris’s eloquent translation, we discover that that under the many surfaces of this magisterial essay is an abyss of poetic thinking struggling to emerge into the light of our encounter.

Stanford University Press

April 30, 2011

Celan primer (PDF)

I’ve prepared a document that might nicely serve as a primer to Paul Celan’s wartime experience and early poems. It includes a page-long summary of his life c. 1941-45 and then five pages from Pierre Joris’ excellent introductory profile to his Paul Celan: Selections, followed by the texts of just two early poems. Here is that document (PDF).

 

(Visited 59 times, 1 visits today)

You may also like...

2 Responses

  1. Poo says:

    Very moving. The depth and breadth of your work beggars me.

  2. C Murray says:

    I have just linked yesterday to Nomadics, there were an amount
    of hits and now this has come out !

    I have an external link to ‘Translations at the Mountain of Death’ which
    enjoys regular hits.

    I hope to create a short introductory and external link
    to this PDF at some stage, as there are many interested
    Celan readers, incl. a friend of mine who is accessing
    BCN documents.

    rgds,

    C Murray

Leave a Reply to Poo Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *