for Nelly Sachs<\/em><\/p>\n Our talk turned on the Too Much, on the On There was talk of your God, I\u00a0 <\/span>spoke Your eye looked at me, looked away, We <\/p>\n Commentary by Barbara Wiedemann & myself on: Z\u00fcrich, Zum Storchen | Zurich, Hotel Zum Storchen<\/i><\/p>\n Written, Paris, 5. 30. 1960.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n T Zurich, Hotel Zum Storchen, Dedication, For Nelly Sachs<\/i>, 9 On the day of an ascension] The poem refers to Celan\u2019s first encounter, on 5. 26.1960, Ascension Day, at that hotel in Zurich, with the German-Jewish poet Nelly Sachs who lived in Sweden. A dated & signed ms. copy is kept in Sachs\u2019 literary estate (PC\/Sachs 41-43).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 1f. Vom Zuviel war die Rede, |vom Zuwenig || Our talk turned on the Too Much, |on the Too Little] cf. Felstiner\u2019s suggestion that \u201cCelan\u2019s opening sentence gives a nod to Margarete Susman, who lived in Zurich and whose 1946 book of Job and the Fate of the Jewish people says that vis-\u00e0-visa the catasstrophe, \u2018every word is a Too Little and a Too Much.\u2019\u201d (PSJ p.158)<\/p>\n 9f. das|M\u00fcnster stand dr\u00fcben || the | minster stood across] From the hotel one sees the Gro\u00dfm\u00fcnster\u00a0<\/span>on the other shore of the Limmat.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 10f. es kam|mit einigem Gold \u00fcbers Wasser || it came | with some gold across the water ]\u00a0 <\/span>Ref. to the Book of Job: \u201cVon Mitternacht kommt Gold, um Gott her ist schrecklicher Glanz\u201d (Job 37.22) The King James version has this as: \u201cFair weather cometh out of the north: with God is terrible majesty, \u201c missing the \u201cgold,\u201d though other English versions have it as \u201cgolden splendor.\u201d See also v. 10 of \u201cNah, im Aortenbogen | Near, in the Aortic Arch,\u201d which reads: \u201cZiv, that light.\u201d In Breathturn into Timestead<\/em> (p. 535) I comment on the mystical meaning of\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cZiv\u201d & then quote the following letters to Sachs:\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIt would seem that Celan himself had a mystical light-experience in company of Nelly Sachs, first in Zurich and then in Paris. The following letters from the poet to Nelly Sachs make reference to and would seem to corroborate this experience [PC \/ NS ## 105 & 108]]:<\/p>\n 12.8.1967<\/p>\n My dear Nelly, My dear\u00a0 <\/span>Nelly, \u00a0<\/span>22-27 Wir | wissen ja nicht, wei\u00dft du, | wir | wissen ja nicht, | was | gilt || We | just don\u2019t know, you know, | we | just don\u2019t know, | what | counts.\u201d] Cf. PC\u2019s note in his agenda (5. 26. 1960): \u201cHotel Zum Storchen | 4 pm Nelly Sachs, alone. \u2018I am a believer.\u2019\u201d PC wrote to Hermann Kasack on 5. 30. 1960: \u201cMay I tell you what she said to me a few days ago\u00a0 <\/span>\u2014 we were speaking about her faith\u00a0 <\/span>\u2014 when I told her about my hope to be able to blaspheme and quarrel to the end? Nelly Sachs nodded and commented: \u2018Wir wissen ja nicht was gilt | We just don\u2019t know what counts\u2026\u2019\u201d (PC\/Sachs 41). In her Meersburger Prize acceptance speech, Sachs said explicitly: \u201cEverything counts. Everything is ferment, that works. And we \u2014smoking from error \u2014 try, well or badly \u2014 we try again and again.\u201d (Works, vol. 4, p. 80).<\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Too Little.\u00a0 <\/span>On you
\n<\/span>on and-yet-you, on
\n<\/span>blurring through brightness, on
\n<\/span>Jewishness, on
\n<\/span>your God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>that.
\n<\/span>On the day of an ascension, the
\n<\/span>Minster stood over there, it came
\n<\/span>with some gold across the water.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>against him, I
\n<\/span>let the heart I had
\n<\/span>hope:
\n<\/span>for
\n<\/span>his highest, his death-rattled, his
\n<\/span>contending word \u2014 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>your mouth
\n<\/span>spoke across to the eye, I heard:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>just don\u2019t know, you know,
\n<\/span>we
\n<\/span>just don\u2019t know,
\n<\/span>what
\n<\/span>counts.<\/p>\n
\nit was so good to hold your letter in my hands and to be reminded by you yourself of that light that shone over the water in Zurich and then in Paris. Once, in a poem, a name for it even came to me through Hebrew.
\nAnd with my warmest congratulations upon your birthday!
\nYour Paul
\n*
\n<\/span>Paris, March 22, 1968.<\/p>\n
\nthank you for your lines, for the reminder of that light.
\nYes, that light. You will find it named in my next book of poetry, which is to appear in autumn \u2014 called by a Hebrew name.
\nWarmest!
\nPaul.<\/p>\n
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