The problem of the ‘absolute’: the desacralized language of Paul Celan’s poetry in the post-Shoah era*

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to examine how poetry, in the case of Paul Celan, created its own language after the Shoah. The thesis is that Paul Celan intentionally uses religious language to expose the object, but at the same time he desacralises it. This shift is revolutionary. In the main part of this article I analyse an exemplum of the use of language which is given in the poem, ‘In the rivers’. This analysis is meant to show the mechanisms for creating a proper language. The conclusion is that Celan’s poetry is founded upon the figure of a witness. This desacralised figure is poetic and ethical (but not substantial). What is more, the way this poetry is written puts it into the position of a witness as well as that of the reader. This is a social fact, so the point of view of the author traverses the sociology of both religion and that of literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Poetry
• absolute poem
• religion
• desacralisation
• witness
• Paul Celan

Acknowledgments

This research was made possible through participation in research seminar at Polish Academy of Sciences provided by Adam Lipszyc and Paweł Piszczatowski. I would like to thank my wife, Barbara Markowska-Marczak, for invaluable comments and corrections which have greatly clarified this text.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The poem was published first as part of the Atemkristall (Crystal of the breath) Paris 1965, Brunidor series with black-grey and white lithographies and etches of his wife Gisele Lestrange, and then two years later in the volume Atemwende (Tropic of breath) 1967 by Surkampf Verlag. See (Felstiner 2001, 216–217).: I have at times modified published translations when a different wording would better reflect features of the original text that are relevant for my argument.

2. ‘Ich sehe keinen prinzipiellen Unterschied zwischen Händedruck und Gedicht’. See: Hamacher (1999).

3. A stanza from the poem by Osip Mandelstam from the volume Stone (’Кpyжeвoм, кaмeнь, бyдь / И пayтинoй cтaнь: / Heбa пycтyю гpyдь / Toнкoй иглoю’ paньuter!”) Paul Celan translates as following: ‘Geh, grab dich, nadelfein, / ins Leere über mir ’ (Celan 1983, 71)

4. According to the Grimm Brothers’ (Grimm and Grimm n.d.) Dictionary of the German Language, the original, spatial meaning of the word ‘Zukunft’ played a priority role in German until the beginning of the 17th century over its temporal semantics. It was used in this sense by the great German classics (the Grimm cite, among others, Goethe and Hölderlin). Moreover, it often had an overtones of emphasis on the situation of ‘returning home’. See. https://woerterbuchnetz.de/?sigle=DWB&sigle=DWB&mode=Vernetzung&lemid=GZ09966.#2 [access 14.06.23]

5. The resemblance between God (Bóg, Boh in Slavic languages) and the name of river Bug is most likely purely phonetic.

6. ‘Ich spreche ja von dem Gedicht, das es nicht gibt! Das absolute Gedicht –- nein, das gibt es gewiß nicht, das kann es nicht geben!’ On the ambiguity, or perhaps the tri-meaning of the word Gabe Celan builds tension in the Berlin poem from the volume Schneepart, Du liegst (Celan 2003a, 315).

7. A Witness (Heb. עֵד) is one that has personal knowledge of an event or a fact. The evidence of at least two witnesses was required for convicting the accused ;(Num. 35:30; Deut. 17:6; 19:15; cf. I Kings 21:10, 13). Commercial transactions of importance took place in the presence of witnesses at the gate of the town ;(Gen. 23; Ruth 4); when a document was drawn up, it was signed by witnesses ;(Jer. 32: 12). The witness of a grave offence, such as enticement to idolatry, was bound by law to expose the offender; if the penalty for the crime was stoning, the witness was obliged to throw the first stone ;(Deut. 13:7ff.; cf. Lev. 24:11; Num. 15:33). False testimony is banned ;(Ex. 20:14 [16]; 23:1; Deut. 5:17 [20]; cf. Prov. 6:19; 14:25, et al.). https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/witness

8. Harold Bloom’s idea (1997) of the process of influence cannot be applied to Celan’s poetry because in this case it is not a poet that is influencing. Instead of a poet it is the event of Shoah that is the source.

Additional information

Funding

This work was not supported by any institution.