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Paul Celan

ポール・ツェラン

Pōru Tseran

Aliases: Paul Antschel
Pen Names: Paul Celan（Pen name adopted after the war (anagram of the Romanian spelling 'Ancel')）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1920-11-23 （Cernăuți (then Kingdom of Romania; now Chernivtsi, Ukraine)）
Died
1970-04-20 （Paris, France (Seine River)） age 49
Nationality
Romanian (1920–1940, from 1945), Soviet (1940–1945), French (from 1955)
Languages
German, Romanian, French
Religion
Judaism
Residence History
Cernăuți (birthplace, childhood) → Tours, France (short medical studies) → Bucharest (c.1945–1947) → Vienna (1948) → Paris (from 1948; naturalized French citizen 1955)

Career

Occupations
Poet, Translator, Writer, Lecturer (German)
Active Years
1938-1970
Influenced By
Immanuel Weissglas, Rose Ausländer, Franz Kafka (influence on correspondence and style)
Influenced
Anselm Kiefer (inspired by Celan's poetry), Maurice Blanchot (philosophical engagement with Celan), Jacques Derrida (philosophical readings)

Education

Schools of Cernăuți (Liceul Ortodox de Băieți No.1, etc.)
Secondary education
Period: 1930–1938
Year of Graduation: 1938
Country: Romania
Graduated 1938. Began writing poetry secretly during this period.
Tours (France)
Medicine (partial studies)
Period: 1938（短期）
Country: France
Studies interrupted; returned home due to political upheaval.

Awards

Bremen Literature Prize
1958
Organization: Free Hanseatic City of Bremen
Result: 受賞
Georg Büchner Prize
1960
Organization: Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Der Sand aus den Urnen (Sand from the Urns)

1948 Poetry collection

First collection published soon after the war; early signs of his fragmentary and symbolic use of language.

lossmemorylanguage
Translations
  • Included in various English selections and translations

Mohn und Gedächtnis (Poppy and Memory)

1952 Poetry collection

Major collection containing signature poems; includes 'Todesfuge (Death Fugue)', a pivotal Holocaust-related poem.

the Holocaustlosslimits of language
Translations
  • English translations/selected poems exist (e.g. Michael Hamburger, John Felstiner)

Sprachgitter (Speech-Grille)

1959 Poetry collection

Important mid-period collection; features compressed language and inventive neologisms.

silencememorylinguistic experimentation

Atemwende (Breathturn)

1967 Poetry collection

Significant late work; further abstracts and fragments language, pushing linguistic boundaries.

transformationsilencememory
Translations
  • English translations exist (e.g. Pierre Joris)

Lichtzwang (Lightduress)

1970 Poetry collection (late/posthumous)

Collection of late poems; continues his extreme experiments with language and imagery.

light and darknesslimits of language

Bibliography

  • Der Sand aus den Urnen (1948)
  • Mohn und Gedächtnis (1952)
  • Von Schwelle zu Schwelle (1955)
  • Sprachgitter (1959)
  • Die Niemandsrose (1963)
  • Atemwende (1967)
  • Fadensonnen (1968)
  • Lichtzwang (1970)
  • Schneepart (posthumous, 1971)
  • Zeitgehöft (posthumous, 1976)

Adaptations

  • The Dreamed Ones (Die Geträumten) (2016) - film based on correspondence with Ingeborg Bachmann
  • Anselm Kiefer's artworks (Celan's poems referenced in the film 'Anselm')

Translations by Author

  • Translated Shakespeare (sonnets etc.) into German
  • Translated Russian poets such as Osip Mandelstam and Sergei Yesenin

Translations of Works

  • Numerous English translations by John Felstiner, Michael Hamburger, Pierre Joris, et al.
  • Translations by Ian Fairley, Susan H. Gillespie, Nikolai Popov & Heather McHugh

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Fragmentary, cryptic, and suggestive linguistic experimentationFrequent use of neologismsPoetic compression and attention to sonic structures
Recurring Motifs
death and lossmemory and forgettinglanguage and silencethresholds and boundaries

Health

  • Depression
    1950年代–1970年
    Recurrent psychiatric symptoms and isolation that severely affected his life and creative work
  • Psychotic episodes (paranoia/delusions)
    1950年代–1960年代
    Experienced several psychotic episodes partly triggered by accusations of plagiarism in the 1950s

Legacy

Paul Celan is regarded as one of the most important German-language poets after WWII. Through his Holocaust experience and the consequent interrogation of language, he fundamentally rethought poetic possibility. His work has been widely interpreted by philosophers and literary scholars and exerts international influence.

Museums

  • No single dedicated museum (memorials and exhibitions exist in several locations) Near Paris (burial: Cimetière de Thiais) and other sites

Academic Societies

  • German literary scholarship communities
  • Celan study groups (academic research networks)

In Popular Culture

  • Film 'The Dreamed Ones' (Die Geträumten) (2016) based on correspondence
  • References to his poems in works by Anselm Kiefer and other artists

Quotes

  • Only one thing remained reachable, close and secure amid all losses: language. ... But it had to go through its own lack of answers, through terrifying silence.
    Source: Speech on occasion of receiving the Bremen Literature Prize (excerpt) (1958)
  • There is nothing in the world for which a poet will give up writing, not even when he is a Jew and the language of his poems is German.
    Source: Statement cited in biographical sources/interviews

Trivia

  • Born Paul Antschel; pen name 'Celan' is an anagram of the Romanian spelling 'Ancel'.
  • 'Todesfuge (Death Fugue)' is among his most famous poems about the Holocaust.
  • Married Gisèle Lestrange in 1952; had a relationship with Ingeborg Bachmann.
  • Drowned in the Seine in 1970; death may have been suicide.
  • Was an active translator into German from many languages (Romanian, Russian, French, etc.).