{"id":16757,"date":"2020-04-21T06:25:22","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T10:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=16757"},"modified":"2020-04-21T06:28:46","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T10:28:46","slug":"commentaries-to-6-paul-celan-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/commentaries-to-6-paul-celan-poems\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentaries on 6 Paul Celan Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Re:\u00a0Tenebrae,\u00a0<\/strong>White and Light,\u00a0Speech-Grille,
\nSnowbed,\u00a0Mati\u00e8re de Bretagne
\n&\u00a0Rubble Scow<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

These are reduced translated versions, with some additional materials, of Barbara Wiedemann’s superb
\nKOMMENTAR in her Paul Celan: Neue kommentierte Gesamtausgabe. Die Gedichte<\/em> (Suhrkamp 2018)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All poems taken from Sprachgitter | Speechgrille:<\/strong><\/p>\n

All poems in this 1959 volume were written between 3. 6. 1955 and 11. 3. 1958. Speechgrille is the smallest of Celan\u2019s collections; the period in question \u2014 from which there exist only three poems not included in the volume \u2014 seems to be the one in which he wrote the least. Concerning this writing block, see also his letter to Hermann Lenz of 6. 24. 1956: \u201cBut believe me, I would have written a long time ago, if \u2014 I still could write. For I have such a wordless year behind me \u2014 behind me? \u2014, that I have to doubt if this state will ever end.\u201d (PC\/HHL 49).<\/p>\n

Concerning the title\u00a0 <\/span>Sprachgitter |Speechgrille<\/i>, see the poem of that name in the third cycle, the comments on it, & the letter to his editor, Rudolf Hirsch: \u201cAt the same time I tell myself that what speaks along with me in \u2018Speechgrille\u2019 is also the existential, the difficulty of all speaking (-to-each-other) and simultaneously its structure (cf. \u2018 Raumgitter | spacegrille\u2019), with which the at first seemingly amphibian is pushed back again \u2014 You see I\u2019m still hesitating.\u201d\u00a0(7. 26. 1958, cf. Joachim Seng, p. 172). See also the note from the drafts for the B\u00fcchner prize speech: \u201cThe pictorial is by no means something visual; it is, like everything else connected with language, a mental phenomenon. [\u2026] It is, here too, a manifestation of language, a speech-art that has to be heard in the written, i.e. the silent (the language-grille, which is also the speechgrille, makes this visible.\u201d (The Meridian, # 256, p. 107).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tenebrae<\/strong><\/h4>\n

3. 10.\u00a0 <\/span>\u2013 10. 8. 1957.<\/p>\n

T Tenebrae] Lat. for darkness; cf. so in the Vulgata-Mt. 27.45: \u201cA sexta autem hora tenebrae factae sunt super universam terram usque ad horam nonam | Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.\u201d Tenebrae or Officium tenebrarum is the name of is a religious service of Western Christianity held during the three days preceding Easter, and characterized by gradual extinguishing of candles, and by a “strepitus” or “loud noise” taking place in total darkness near the end of the service. It is a catholic liturgy but one with marked Jewish features. In the Hebrew original four of the 5 lamentations (of 22 verses each) begin an alphabetic order with a consonant of the Hebrew alphabet (alphabetic acrostic); in the latin (catholic) version the Hebrew consonant is set as letter hame at the head of the verse and gives rise to specific coloratura in the musical settings. Cf. v. 10-11 of \u201cBenedicta\u201d (You, who greeted it, |the tenebrae lamp) and PC\u2019s title for one of GCL\u2019s etchings: \u201cT\u00e9n\u00e8bres \u2014 Tenebrae.\u201d In 1957, Easter fell on 21 April.<\/p>\n

In Spur des Wortes<\/i>, Otto P\u00f6ggeler recounts that when he visited Celan in April 1957, the poet told him that \u201cTenebrae\u201d was \u201cone of his favorite poems: that it had come to him on the street and that he was able to write it down complete when he got home \u2014 this hadn\u2019t happened to him much recently. He himself was not a believer, but the poem was like a negro spiritual. Because of the hieratic character off the latin language he had not chosen the French title \u201cLe\u00e7ons des t\u00e9n\u00e8bres\u201d [Couperin\u2019s Oratorium, a recording of which Celan owned & which Jean Bollack suggested as core inspiration for the poem]. Cf. also Felstiner\u2019s discussion of the poem int PSJ, pp 101-105.<\/p>\n

T Tenebrae, 1 f. Nah sind wir, Herr, | nah und greifbar || We are near, Lord, | near and at hand.] Cf. H\u00f6lderlin\u2019s \u201cPatmos:\u201d \u201c Near and | hard to grasp, the god. | Yet where danger lies, | grows that which saves. | Eagles dwell | in darkness, and without fear\u201d (Richard Sieburth\u2019s translation, p. 89 Hymns and Fragments,<\/i> Princeton UP, 1984).<\/p>\n

4 ineinander verkrallt | clawed into each other] BW points to The Theory and Practice of Hell<\/i>, where Eugen Kokon cites Oscar Berger\u2019s account of Treblinka: \u201cSometimes there were shipments that held only corpses. I believe these people must have been gassed in the cars, for I never noticed any wounds. The bodies were convulsively intertwined, the skin blue.\u201d (p.184) & the corroborative note by PC of 7. 18. 1965 in Richard Beer-Hofmann\u2019 Ja\u00e1cob\u2019s Traum<\/i> (Jacob\u2019s Dream<\/i>): \u00a0 <\/span>\u201cIneinander verkrallt! | clawed into each other\u201d next to Jacob\u2019s acknowledgement to God: \u201cDoch aneinander hangen, ewig \u2014 Du und ich! | But eternally hanging on each other \u2014 you & I.\u201d (P. 148in the original).<\/p>\n

6 dein Leib, Herr | your body, Lord, 14 Es war Blut, es war |was du vergossen, Herr ||It was blood, it was | what you spilled, Lord] Cf. Matthew 26.28: \u201cFor this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.\u201d & v. 11 of \u201c The Load:\u201d \u201cCurry my horse, when the hand here breaks the bread.\u201d<\/p>\n

12 Mulde und Maar | crater and maar] Various reading notes & word lists in the T\u00fcbingen philological edition of Sprachgitter<\/i> cites Mulde |crater in connection with glacier formations (TCA\/SG 114) & Maar |maar in relation to volcanic formations as given in the Kluge-G\u00f6tze etymological dictionary of the German language (TCA\/SG 120, zu S. 254).<\/p>\n

13 Zur Tr\u00e4nke |To the trough] Tr\u00e4nke | trough (watering place)] the word appears only one other time in Celan\u2019s work, in v. 12 of \u201cThe Load.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

18 Augen und Mund stehn so offen und leer |Eyes and mouths gape, so open and empty] Cf. Celan\u2019s translation of Cayrols text for Alain Resnais\u2019 Auschwitz film Nacht und Nebel | Night and Fog: \u201cZuletzt haben alle das gleiche Gesicht. Es sind alterslose Wesen, die mit offenen Augen sterben |At the end, they all have the same face. They are ageless creatures that die with their eyes open.\u201d (GW IV 89).<\/p>\n

Wei\u00df und Leicht | White and Light<\/h4>\n

10. 23. 1956 \u2013 10. 8. 1957.<\/p>\n

On 10. 17. 1957 Celan sent this poem together with \u201cNight,\u201d \u201cWith Letter and Clock,\u201d \u201cSnowbed,\u201d and \u201cMati\u00e8re de Bretagne,\u201d to Ingeborg Bachmann with the following explanation: \u201cI am sending you a few poems, Ingeborg, read them. \/ There is barely a poem in which I didn\u2019t leave room for you.\u00a0 <\/span>That space is the truth of the poems. \/ When I wrote \u2018White and Light\u2019 \u2014 it took days and days \u2014, there came, at the very last,\u00a0 <\/span>the word \u2018Verlorne |lost one.\u2019 I knew immediately that that was you, I tried to defend myself \u2014 but you had to stay, for truth\u2019s sake.\u201d (Die Zeit, 4. 28. 2016, p. 48, PC\/IB, letter #55, p. 73)<\/p>\n

2 Im Windschatten |In the windshadow] In a reading note of\u00a0 <\/span>9.21. 1954 PC had marked this sentence in Heidegger\u2019s What is Called Thinking<\/i>: \u201c. . . Sokrates sei der reinste der Denker des Abendlandes, die Nachfolger h\u00e4tten sich in den Windschatten stellen m\u00fcssen.\u201d [The English translation by J. Glenn Gray renders this as \u201c\u2026 those who followed had to run for shelter.\u201d]<\/p>\n

6 Die Strahlen. Sie wehn uns zuhauf. |The rays. They blow us into a heap] Cf. Celan\u2019s confirming note, \u00a0 <\/span>\u201cThe rays. They blow us into a heap\u201d in Relation to Scholem writing in Die Geheimnisse der Sch\u00f6pfung\u00a0 <\/span>| The secrets of Creation <\/i>[not translated as far as I could discover]: \u201cDas Strahlen \u2013 das ist das geheime Licht, in dem die Tora erstrahlt und das die H\u00e4upter der [von Jecheskel erschauten Tiergestalt] erleuchtet. Diese \u203aH\u00e4upter\u2039 aber sind nichts anderes als die \u203aEinsichtigen\u2039 [im Buche Daniel], die immerdar leuchten und jenes \u203aGew\u00f6lbe\u2039 und das Leuchten, das von dort ausgeht, einsichtig betrachten. Dies aber ist das Licht der Tora, das immerdar und unaufh\u00f6rlich leuchtet\u201d (p. 50). [\u201cThe radiating \u2014 that is the secret light the Torah radiates and that lights the heads (seen by Ezekiel as animal-shapes.) These \u2018heads,\u2019 however are nothing else than the wise men [in the Book of Daniel]\u2026This however is the light of the Torah which radiates always and endlessly.\u201d Cf. also v.\u00a0 <\/span>2 of\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cEroded | Weggebeizt:\u201d \u201cthe beamwind.\u201d<\/p>\n

23 f. Die Stirnen | die man uns lieh, | um der Spiegelung willen ||the foreheads that were lent us, | for the sake of the mirrorings ] Cf. PC\u2019s note in Scholem\u2019s Die Geheimnisse der Sch\u00f6pfung <\/i>, \u201cthe forehead that were lent us, | for the sake of the mirrorings | (White and light)\u201d in connection with Scholem\u2019s phrase: \u201cThe Shekinah has nothing of its own. But she receives and safekeeps everything and rules with her, as it is often called, \u2018lent\u2019 strength in the below. [Die Schechina hat nichts aus sich selbst. Sie empf\u00e4ngt und bewahrt aber alles und waltet mit dieser ihr, wie es oft hei\u00dft, \u2018geliehenen\u2019 Kraft im Unteren.\u201d] (further marginal marks, p. 36 f., the note p. 37).<\/p>\n

30 Meerm\u00fchle geht | Seamill turns] Cf. the unidentified reading note: \u201cAuskolkung, Kolk, Vertief[un]g in der Sohle eines Flusses (Strudell\u00f6cher) an Meeresk\u00fcsten (Meerm\u00fchlen) oder im Untergrund von Gletschern | scouring, scour, hollow in a riverbed (scour holes) on seacoasts (sea-mill) or in the underground of glaciers\u201d (TCA\/SG 114). Clemens Podewils (as recalled by Pajari R\u00e4s\u00e4nen in his Counter-figures: An Essay on Anti-metaphoric Resistance. Paul Celan’s Poetry<\/i> ) reported the following comment by Celan concerning the word Meerm\u00fchle: \u201cThese compound nouns have been held against me, for exemple Meerm\u00fchle |seamill. But aren\u2019t pebbles, rocks, cliffs ground by the sea into what they are?\u2026 Basically my word formations are not inventions. They belong to the oldest layers of language. What matters for me? To get away from words as simple descriptions. I would like to again hear the name of things in the words. The description isolates the presented object. In the name, however, each things speaks to us in its connection (Zusammenhang: coherence) with the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sprachgitter | Speech-Grille<\/h4>\n

6. 14. 1957(Vienna, Rennweg) \u2013 0. 18. 1957 (dated corrections). Celan\u2019s friends Klaus and Nanni Demus whom he visited during his holidays in Austria (cf. also \u201cVoices\u201d\u009d) lived in the Rennweg, the third district of Vienna.<\/p>\n

T Sprachgitter | Speech-grille] Also title of volume. In Vienna Celan received a postcard dated \u201cWhitsuntide 1957\u201d (6.9.1957) from G\u00fcnther Neske with the image of the confessional screen (the Sprechgitter<\/i>) of the Saint Clare covent in Pfullingen (W\u00fcrttemberg); the text spoke to Celan\u2019s intention of publishing his next book with Neske. Cf. marginal mark in Jean-Paul\u2019s Kampaner Thal<\/i>: \u201c\u2026 unter dem tiefer einsinkenden Gewitter schlugen die Nachtigallen lauter, gleichsam als lebendige Gewitterst\u00fcrmer, hinter bl\u00fchenden Sprachgittern |\u2026 under the fast approaching storm the nightingales raised their voices, as if they were living lightning stormers, behind blooming speech-grilles.\u201d (Bd. 42\/43, S. 20, my translation as the available English translation avoids \u201cSprachgittern\u201d & translates it as \u201chedges.\u201d) Celan told Demus that those were the two inspirations for the title. He wrote his friend Joachim Seng, \u201cI tell myself that in \u2018Sprachgitter\u2019 the existential, the difficulty of all speaking (to one another) and at the same time the structure of that speaking is what counts\u201d (Gedichte 643).<\/p>\n

1-4 Augenrund zwischen den St\u00e4ben. || Flimmertier Lid | rudert nach oben, | gibt den Blick frei. || Eyeround between the bars. || Flitterbug lid | rows upward,, | frees a gaze] Cf. Rilke\u2019s famous poem \u201cThe Panther,\u201d in New Poems<\/i>: \u201cHis gaze against the sweeping of the bars |has grown so weary, it can hold no more. | To him, there seem to be a thousand bars | and back behind those thousand bars no world.\u201d & further on: \u201cAn image enters then, | goes through the tensioned stillness of the limbs \u2014 | and in the heart ceases to be.\u201c (translated by Stanley Appelbaum.)<\/p>\n

6 der Himmel, herzgrau, mu\u00df nah sein |the heavens, heartgrey, must be near.] Cf. the note to the B\u00fcchner speech: \u201cArtistry and word-art \u2014 that may have the feeling of something occidental, evening-filling, Poetry is something else; poetry, heartgrey, sublunar, heavens- and heart-grey, heart and heavens-grey breath-marbled language in time. (M p.110)<\/p>\n

7 T\u00fclle | socket] Celan had many notes from various dictionaries, plus French translations, concerning this word essentially referencing the metal holder into which one sticks a light, also \u201cLichthalter | lightholder.\u201d<\/p>\n

13 unter einem Passat | under one trade wind ] Celan\u2019s Kluge\/G\u00f6tze dictionary defines the \u201cPassat\u201d trade wind thus: \u201cThese easterly winds blowing regularly in the lower latitudes are beneficent for crossings.\u201d<\/p>\n

17 Lachen |pools]\u00a0 <\/span>Marjorie Perloff writes in \u201c\u2018Sound Scraps, Vision Scraps\u2019: Paul Celan’s Poetic Practice,\u201d her analysis of the poem: \u201cLachen<\/i>, in this context, has the primary meaning of puddles or pools: two gray pools of water blot the flagstones. But Lachen <\/i>also means \u201cnotches\u201d\u2014the stones are notched with the sign of the two unknown strangers \u2014 and in the singular, the noun \u201cLachen\u201d is the common word \u201claughter\u201d\u2014in this case, a mirthless, hollow chuckle of sorts. In all three cases, the flagstones reflect the \u201cheartgray\u201d condition of the lovers: the desire for communion \u2014 with hidden priest? God? and especially the \u201cyou\u201d who is his beloved \u2014 has failed.<\/p>\n

18, 19 zwei | Mundvoll Scgweigen ||Two | mouthfuls of silence.]\u00a0 <\/span>As Dennis J. Schmidt puts it, Celan\u2019s \u201c \u2018Two mouthfuls of silence\u2019 (zwei \/ Mundvoll Schweigen<\/i>) . . . mark the place of the poem for Celan . . . such silence is not to be confused with mere quiet but needs to be heard as the unvocalized voice of the poem. . . . a voice estranged from language, rendering the effort to listen to language in the poem rare, demanding, and painful at once.\u201d (Dennis J. Schmidt, \u201cBlack Milk and Blue: Celan and Heidegger on Pain and Language,\u201d in Hamacher 110-29; see p. 110.)<\/p>\n

Schneebett | Snowbed<\/h4>\n

6. 23.\u00a0 <\/span>(Z\u00fcrich) \u2013 10. 8. 1957. First fragments as notes in Arno Schmidt\u2019s Leviathan,<\/i> where further fragments point to \u201cVoice IV\u201d and\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cEmbankments, Roadsides, Vacant Lots, Rubble.\u201d<\/p>\n

1, 9 Sterbegekl\u00fcft | death cliffs, 4 Steilwand | rockwall] Cf. reading traces in Arno Schmidt\u2019s story \u201cEnthymesis\u201d <\/i>in the volume Leviathan<\/i>: <\/i>with marginal arrow-mark by PC: \u201cAls er durch Felsengewirr sich bis an ihren Fu\u00df gearbeitet hatte, sah er best\u00fcrzt die wilden Mauern unabsehbar nach beiden Seiten laufen; Ger\u00f6llhalden k\u00f6rnten blockig vor; lange Schatten hingen verrenkt im schweigenden Gekl\u00fcft; himmelhoch neigte sich die Wand \u00fcber den Zur\u00fccktaumelnden | He finally worked his way on foot to its base through a rock jumble, but to his dismay he saw no end to the wild wall on either side; before him pebbled slopes bouldered away in kernels; long, wrenched shadows hung in silent fissures; the sky-wall bent low over his reeling figure <\/i>(p. 17 in English edition of Collected Novellas, <\/i>translated by John E. Woods). See also the note from Celan\u2019s June 1957 stay in Vienna: \u201cSeelengekl\u00fcft |\u00a0 <\/span>\u201c with the addition: \u201cVienna: Sterbehaus |Deathhouse\u201d (TCA\/SG 116). Re\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cSteilwand | cliff\u201d cf.\u00a0 <\/span>Enthymesis<\/i> : \u201cDer F\u00fchrer deutete auf eine etwa 1 Stadion hohe r\u00f6tliche Steilwand und wisperte sch\u00fcchtern: \u203aDa soll es sein . . .\u2019 |The guide pointed out a reddish cliff about 1 stadion high and whispered timidly: \u2018That\u2019s it, they say\u2026\u2019\u201d (p. 6 in English edition).<\/p>\n

1, 3 Ich komm |I come] Temporarily considered as title for the poem.<\/p>\n

2 Hartwuchs im Herzen | Hardgrowth in the heart, 18 In den G\u00e4ngen | In the passageways] cf. reading traces in the story \u201cNadir\u201d in Leviathan<\/i>: \u201c Now there running down the halls. \u2014 And I bounded up the mountains through the crouching, frozen tree shapes. (\u201cGive us good going, ye, gravel, granite and hard stuff\u2026\u201d P. 60 in English translation. I prefer to translate \u201cG\u00e4nge\u201d with passageways rather the hall, and \u201c \u201cHartwuchs\u201d as hard growth rather than \u201chard stuff.\u201d) Celan had a note in the back of the book: \u201cHartwuchs im Herzen | hardgrowth in the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

5 Atemgefleckted Geleucht. Strichweise Blut | Breathflecked light glow. Blood streaks] Cf. \u201cNadir\u201d (with marginal mark): \u201cHerbstnebel dampft auf<\/i> | am hellen Mittag; warm und dicht, gr\u00fcnlich vom verwischten Pflanzengeleucht: nun findet ihr mich nicht mehr | Autumn fog billows up<\/i> | in the bright afternoon: warm and thick, greenish from the gloss wiped off plants: you won\u2019t find me now\u201d and the note int he book: \u201cAtemgeflecktes Geleucht. | Strichweise Blut | Breathflecked light glow. Blood streaks\u201d and \u201c\u2013 Hinab durchs Geleucht | \u2014 down through the lightglow.\u201d<\/p>\n

6 Atemgefleckted Geleucht. Strichweise Blut |W\u00f6lkende Seele, noch einmal gestaltnah. | Zehnfingerschatten \u2013 verklammert. || Breathflecked ligthglow. Blood streaks. |Clouding soul, once more near-shapely | Tenfinger shadow. Gripclasped ] Cf. notes in Leviathan<\/i>: \u201cW\u00f6lkende Seele, gestaltm\u00fcd | W\u00f6lkende Seele, noch einmal gestaltnah. | Zehnfingerschatten \u2013 verklammert || Clouding soul, shape-tired | Clouding soul, once more near-shapely |Tenfinger-shadow. Gripclasped\u201d.<\/p>\n

12f. Kristall um Kristall |zeittief gegittert, | Crystal after crustal, | meshed timedeep] Cf. note in Leviathan<\/i>: \u201cCrystal after crystal, | meshed timedeep\u201d and Lotze\u2019s term\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cRaumgitter | spacegrille\u201d for the inner structure of crystals. (p. 17).<\/p>\n

Mati\u00e8re de Bretagne<\/h4>\n

Paris, 8. 9\/10. 1957 from fragments dated August 1956 and corrections datted 5. 17. 1957. PC himself indicated 8. 13. 1957 as date of composition. Probably the first poem began (5. 17. 1957, according to earlier notes) after PC acquired his first major Mandelstam edition (Cobranie covinenij [ Collected Works]) in May 1957. Draft also stands in close connection with PC\u2019s translation of Rimbaud\u2019s \u201cDrunken Boat.\u201d Cf. also commentary on \u201cWhite and Light,\u201d re Ingeborg Bachmann.<\/p>\n

T Mati\u00e8re]\u00a0 <\/span>The french word \u201cmati\u00e8re\u201d means material, matter, theme; with possible additions of: pus, excrements, brainmass. Cf. Celan\u2019s remarks to Walter Jens: \u201cWhere there are such re-encounters, they affirm themselves also language-wise\u2026: semantically \u2014 as in the case of the synonymity\u00a0 <\/span>of \u2018mati\u00e8re\u2019 and \u2018pus\u2019 which was detected by you (and, tellingly, not by me), or, but that is rarer, in the etymological.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>(16. 5. 1961, GA 532).<\/p>\n

T Bretagne] From 4. 26.\u00a0 <\/span>to 5. 1. 1957 Celan was in the celtic landscape of Brittany on the French Atlantic coast; a range of further poems & the \u2018breton cycle\u2019 in Noone\u2019s Rose<\/i> were written there (cf. \u201cDie hellen Steine| The bright stones\u201d & commentary )<\/p>\n

T Mati\u00e8re\u00a0 <\/span>de Bretagne] On 1. 23. 1961, PC told\u00a0 <\/span>Norbert Koch that there was a connection with the breton King Arthur cycle of tales, pointing also back to the use of \u201cAvalun |Avalon\u201d from an early (not reproduced here) poem (\u201cFl\u00fcgelrauschen\u201d) in SU<\/i>. In connection with that poem, PC explained to Beda Alleman: \u201c I am including with these lines an old poem, that was doubtlessly a precursor of the later \u00a0 <\/span>poem \u2014 in memory of\u00a0 <\/span>Crozon and \u2013 among other things also \u2013 of the red sails of the Breton fishermen\u00a0 <\/span>(\u2018Mati\u00e8re\u2019). Back then \u2013 Avalon … \u2013 it was still called: \u2018Fl\u00fcgelrauschen\u2019\u201d (3. 27. 1962, ref. Badiou).<\/p>\n

1, 23 Ginsterlicht | Gorselight, 2 Dorn | thorn] Gorse (Ulex europaeus), the only Fabaceaee<\/i> species with thorns, flowers golden-yellow from April to July.<\/p>\n

10 beim Stern, die milchigen | next to the star, the milky] Cf. in PC\u2019s translation of Rimbaud\u2019s \u201cDrunken Boat:\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cGr\u00fcnhimmel trank ich, Sterne, taucht ein in milchigen Strahl | [lit:] Greenskies I drank, stars, infused in milky beam\u201d where the original is: \u201c\u2026 je me suis baign\u00e9 dans le Po\u00e8me \/ De la mer, infus\u00e9 d\u2019astres, et lactescent, \/ d\u00e9vorant les azurs verts;\u2026]\u00a0 <\/span>(on 7. 30. 1957; v. 22, GW IV 103).<\/p>\n

11 f. Steindattel, | unten, gebuscht, klafft || stone-mussel | below, tufted, gapes] Pc noted the expression \u201cSteindattel klafft\u201d several times (TCA\/SG 118), also in his Brehm (Brehms Tierleben in 4 B\u00e4nden, 1956)<\/i> the description of the Mytilidae<\/i> (Vol. 1, p. 135). The ref. here is to the date mussel (\u201cSteindattel | stone-date\u201d in German), Lithophaga<\/i>, a genus of medium-sized marine bivalve molluscs in the family Mytilidae. Some of the earliest fossil Lithophaga shells have been found in Mesozoic rocks. The shells of species in this genus are long and narrow with parallel sides. The animals bore into stone or coral rock with the help of pallial gland secretions, hence the systematic name Lithophaga<\/i>, which means “stone-eater”. (cf. Wikipedia) When the valves of a mussel are stand open (\u201cgape\u201d) the animal is dead. Cf. also v.8 of \u201cKermovan.\u201d<\/p>\n

16 H\u00e4nde | hands] Cf. in PC\u2019s letter to Norbert Koch: \u201c \u2018hands,\u2019 \u2014 those are\u2026 the hands, both hands, the ledt and the right, it is \u2014 I\u2019m quoting Osip Mandelstam \u2014 (all!) our \u2018Zweih\u00e4ndertum |twohandedness-state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schuttkahn | Rubble Scow<\/h4>\n

5. 10.\u00a0 <\/span>\u2013 6. 10.1957. A later copy made specifically for Ingeborg Bachman on 10. 18. 1957 is entitled \u201cRheinufer | Rhine-shore\u201d (HKA 5, 2, 227); re Celan\u2019s stay in K\u00f6ln, see the poem\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cK\u00f6ln, Am Hof.\u201d<\/p>\n

3 f. ein totes|Warum steht am Heck | a dead | Why stands at the stern] 6, Geleichtert. Die Lunge | Lightened. The lung] Cf. reference in v. 23 & 26 of \u201cEs ist alles anders | Everything is different.\u201d<\/p>\n

6 f. Die Lunge, die Qualle | bl\u00e4ht sich zur Glocke | The lung, the jellyfish | swells into a bell ] Celan probably read this in his Brehm: <\/i>\u201cAnother type of jellyfish is the Lungenqualle [lung-jellyfish] (Rhizostoma pulmo), which inhabits the Mediterranean. It\u2019s tender yellow bell can reach a diameter of 60 to 80 centimeters.\u201d (v. 1, p. 51).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Re:\u00a0Tenebrae,\u00a0White and Light,\u00a0Speech-Grille, Snowbed,\u00a0Mati\u00e8re de Bretagne &\u00a0Rubble Scow   These are reduced translated versions, with some additional materials, of Barbara Wiedemann’s superb KOMMENTAR in her Paul Celan: Neue kommentierte Gesamtausgabe. Die Gedichte (Suhrkamp 2018)...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16757"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16788,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16757\/revisions\/16788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}