Paul Celan - Allerseelen / All Souls (Day) - cc English, Türk, Deutsch

Paul Celan (23 November 1920 - c. 20 April 1970) was a Romanian poet and translator. He was born as Paul Antschel into a Jewish family in the former Kingdom of Romania (now Ukraine). He changed his name to "Paul Celan". His mother was an avid reader of German literature who insisted German be the language of the house. He became one of the major German-language poets of the post-World War II era. (Wikipedia)
Celan is notoriously difficult to read, and difficult to translate. Translation of the poem: cited from Ulrich Baer (2000)
On Facebook Klaus Dieter Meier commented the following:
"On the 2.XI 1957, it was the day of Allerseelen (all souls) Paul Celan dedicated this Poem to I. Bachmann (Letters P.C-I.B) On the 5. XI he wrote to her , that he changed the word "broken" (oath, swearing) into silent with prenom (german) zer- it means like mis, it is an unusual word, I don´t know if you can say: mis-silent, like that meaning. P.C. felt guilty, because he had once more- an affair with I. Bachmann. From 14.October 1957 - May 1958).He was married now, and he was anxious about his partnership with his woman Gisele, this is easy to understand. I think, it is an easy poem, two lovers have shattered memories: spermed nights, birds, sea, autumn feelings, black stars , a lot of lovers feel like this... The question could be: was there an broken oath or was there only destructive silence. Just like: her phantasy filled the silence with love, but he had not the feeling. But one moment there was an hook in his heart for the feeling against her pulse ( I think in the meaning man/woman).
Once more: I think it is interesting, that the title can say something about their partnership: The father of I.B. was an typical Nazi, and like many Germans or Austrians, I.B. made her a matter of conscience, about the bestiality murdering of jewish people.The partnership with an jewish man could make feel her better, but what was the advantage for Paul Celan? He must always think about his murdered family, his people. At this time there was a popular movie (of course only for the minority of leftist people) "The murders are always around us". I think the father of I.B. did something in the war, not the best things you can suppose, he was a fanatic nazi since 1932, one of the first. So I think, all souls of the murdered people (jewish and others) throw her shadows at this relation of two people."
Allerseelen
Was hab ich getan?
Die Nacht besamt, als könnt es
noch andere geben, nächtiger als
diese.
Vogelflug, Steinflug, tausend
beschriebene Bahnen. Blicke,
geraubt und gepflückt. Das Meer,
gekostet, vertrunken, verträumt. Eine Stunde,
seelenverfinstert. Die nächste, ein Herbstlicht,
dargebracht einem blinden
Gefühl, das des Wegs kam. Andere, viele,
ortlos und schwer aus sich selbst: erblickt und umgangen.
Findlinge, Sterne, schwarz und voll Sprache: benannt
nach zerschwiegenem Schwur.
Und einmal (wann? auch dies ist vergessen);
den Widerhaken gefühlt,
wo der Puls den Gegentakt wagte.
Turkish: Bir Nevi Dipnot (Translation: Sora @greentealemon)
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[@quagapp]

I've always had a mixed reaction to Celan. His compressed syntax & language developed, maybe in a way like that of Emily Dickinson and Vallejo. And his interest in Heiddeger seems (according to another KZbin on Celan & Heidegger) to have been almost obsessive. So the story of his own life aside (which of course is part of it all) he was attracted to those liminal areas, to maybe surrealism, the modernist to postmodernists 'twists' in the language of Dickinson ( and these days by the Language Poets)...in fact already by Holderlin in his later poems. He translated Dickinson. Like her, and Heidegger he 'tampered' with the language and syntax. She capitalized verbs and adverbs etc. She used a highly original syntax and method. The ironic tone Eliot got via Laforgue is perhaps lacking. And the apparent detachment of John Ashbery. Certainly no obvious confessionalism. Berryman's 'holocaust' was his father's suicide. Celan's was a personal and general struggle but like most poets his drive was, like Heidegger's, towards what we might call Being or existence. Neither Berryman nor Celan could solve their existence issues.

[@betapicts]

Thank you for your mini-exposé on PC! But we must bear in mind that someone who writes a poem like ‘Todesfuge’ deserves a place in heaven.

[@quagapp]

@@betapicts Or Hell, where Dante might place him. Certainly at his best he holds our attention. At his worst he is rather dark, at his best a great innovator. And Todesfuge is great indeed. And the shorter, later poems take more work, regardless of the language barrier as he was an innovator for sure.

[@betapicts]

@@quagapp - In your comments I detect a certain inconvenience with "dark" / hermetic poems. Well, let’s give it a try with a hermetic image instead of a poem. First, view this painting (30 sec.): kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJeyo4ekZsSgb9k Hopefully you don't know this painting. Try to seriously formulate your likes or dislikes of the picture (30 sec.). At the end of the video title and artist are given. Check the painting on wikipedia And look again…

[@felipedonadelli7713]

~Having a reaction~ has nothing to do with poem. Its about thinking and language, not your personal opinions and atitudes . You look like someone who is detachedly observing the saying of poetry as something that you could measure. That is not the case. You are filled with concepts. You should throw them all away, together with your literature university education. Just hear what is said, forget that poetry exists, forget all about everything, you know nothing, then you can understand something.

[@felipedonadelli7713]

You posit yourself as a judge of poets. You have a claim of power over language. This claim is what has and will always remove you from the saying of the poets. You will never understand one word of it.

[@JeffreyGreenCompRhet]

Remarkable. I'm grateful for your posting this. Facebook isn't exactly brimming with material that can change lives, but you have proved the exception to the rule. Many thanks.

[@betapicts]

you're welcome

[@davidlowenstein4282]

Paul Celan - vielen herzlichen Dank für deinen tiefen Geist der es schafft sich in Worte auszudrücken!

[@betapicts]

+David Löwenstein Gern geschehen

[@waltof]

Gracias desde Argentina. Amo a Paul CELAN, le dedico mi vida a su poesía.

[@florianvo4323]

wow. das kannte ich noch nicht. ich wusste gar nicht, dass es filmaufnahmen von celan gibt. --- vielen dank für´s hochladen.

[@bernhardfbuttner5694]

schwarz und voll Sprache . . . .

[@farnsh]

thank you for posting this !!!

[@MartineRoth]

Die Menschheit soll das hören

[@marcelopellegrini1581]

This is quite wonderful. Thanks a lot!

[@ProgRockDan1]

Paul Celan so fantastic

[@quagapp]

His famous Todesfuge I can now listen to almost without the English. This poem takes more effort but I found a translation. I had that book of Hamburger's but lost it but have his translation of Holderlin and various books including the Penguin German 20thC Poets and so on. I have Breathturn translated by Pierre Joris. I struggle with the German but I love the sounds and the translation has some fascinating phrases. The idea of inseminating the night is interesting. And things like '...stars, black, full of language' are great. Great poet.

[@betapicts]

I've added German cc's, perhaps helpful

[@quagapp]

@@betapicts I had no idea there was such a thing.! Very good! Thanks, was puzzled, then noticed the little 'ccs' up there....

[@betapicts]

vielen Dank für Ihre Erklärung

[@helinalagoz8547]

Bir vakit, ruhum karardı. Sonrasında bir güz ışığı gibiydim yolun geldiğine dair bir kör histen oluşan...

[@betapicts]

Eine Stunde, seelenverfinstert. Die nächste, ein Herbstlicht, dargebracht einem blinden Gefühl, das des Wegs kam.

[@paulopb6927]

Thank you, so so much

[@TheShotenZenjin]

If you can't speak German, get the wonderful English translation of selected Celan poems by Michael Hamburger (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics). All Souls What did I do? Seminated the night, as though there could be others, more nocturnal than this one. Bird flight, stone flight, a thousand described routes. Glances, purloined and plucked. The sea, tasted, drunk away, dreamed away. An hour soul-eclipsed. The next, an autumn light, offered up to a blind feeling which came that way. Others, many, with no place but their own heavy centers: glimpsed and avoided. Foundlings, stars, black, full of language:named after an oath which silence annulled. And once (when? that too is forgotten): felt the barb where my pulse dared the counter-beat.

[@TheShotenZenjin]

BTW, betapics, thanks so much for the video!

[@Atomiumonamour]

Good day, Betapicts. The sillable "zer-" in the word "zerschwiegen" refers to an action that takes things apart, often by dissolving them into little particles. "Zerlegen" means to disassemble something into little components. "Zerspringen" means that something breaks into many little parts. You could say that "zerschweigen" means the same to an oath: to turn it into powder by keeping it silent for too long and thus making invalid.

[@betapicts]

nice interpretation, thanks!

[@betapicts]

my goodness! How can you think this video is fake? I recorded this in circa 2000 from a well respected Dutch Broadcasting Company (VPRO) with the credits shown at the end of the video: WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk). It is broadcasted in 1970, but the recording is evidently from an earlier date.

[@niemandsspiegel8909]

Das könnte sein 1967 in Freiburg (bin mir nicht sicher nun, ich glaube aber er hatte noch eine andere Lektüre später auch in Fr.in.Br). Leider sieht man nicht klar was für eine Bühne ist es. Da hatte er eine grosse offene Lektüre in der Uni.

[@Rayman8223]

Many years ago, I found a similar video with his poem the Sprachgitter, performed by Paul Celan itself. But it disappeared, I can't find it 🥺😔

[@betapicts]

I know Celan has read a couple of his poems before the camera...

[@betapicts]

you're welcome

[@oferabin]

Dear sir I intend to make a movie about several poets and want to use some particular Paul's video scenes as: 1. Todesfuge - Paul Celan 2. "Paul Celan - Allerseelen / All Souls (Day)" What should I do or, from whom do I get permission to use parts of those videos? Thank you

[@betapicts]

Ofer Rabin it's ok with me

[@hinojoteenoja]

Könnte jemand vielleicht sagen, wo man weitere seine Gedichte von ihm selbst gelesen finden kann? Ich habe nur sehr wenige hier bei KZbin angehört...

[@betapicts]

geh in die Buchhandlung 😉

[@hinojoteenoja]

Ich würde gerne, aber ich wohne nicht in einem deutschsprachigen Land und deswegen kann kaum was auf Deutsch besorgen. Wollte einen CD mit seinen Gedichten kaufen, aber es gibt keine verfügbaren Lieferungsmöglichkeiten :(

[@betapicts]

@@hinojoteenoja Búcher zb www.biblio.com/book/gedichte-zwei-banden-erster-band-german/d/1264378042?aid=frg&srsltid=AfmBOoqXzDBM0Yrt-Rp4qb6JK2XFkC4YtpeRhPCMbaMZCRpD-LYrOfkj9dg

[@viola229]

German-speaking Jewish poet. German culture in eastern Europe. Czernowitz must have been very creative

[@SteauaBucuresti]

Everyone in Czernowitz loved the Romanian Culture. Romanian Culture was the dominant Culture in Czernowitz.

[@SteauaBucuresti]

There´s nothing austrian about Paul Celan. He is definitely Romanian. He was friends with Romanian geniuses such as Emil Cioran, Mircea Eliade and Eugen Ionescu. He loved the Romanian language, that´s why there´s hundreds of poems written by paul celan in the Romanian language. Celans last name is a Romanian last name. He could have chosen more Austrian last name but he didn´t. Get used to it. He is part of the great Romanian culture and Austrian.

[@jcastano]

His poetry is all in German. Its the language his family spoke and which he continued to write in long after he had settled in France.

[@edwardkanterian5113]

He wrote a few poems in Romanian, certainly not 'hundreds'. What a funny idea. Even funnier to call him 'definitely Romanian', because he had Romanian friends (and Eliade was not one of them). By this logic Cioran was a Jew, because he had a Jewish friend - Celan. And Irish, because he had an Irish friend - Beckett.

[@herbertnikolausscheschy7675]

To declare Celan a romanian poet is very questionable. To situate his parents in the former kingdom of Romania is historically wrong. Czernowiz (where Celan's parents lived) and the Bukowina were part of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy till 1918!

[@thomastheobscure351]

And he was born in 1920. So?

[@herbertnikolausscheschy7675]

I would just prefer to read that Celan was a german-writing poet and translator born in the kingdom of Romania. To "nationalize" writers, to occupy them for a certain country is in general questionable. Celan could (with reasons) also be described as austrian or german poet, but that is not really better. Anyway it is a fact: He wrote his poems in german language and became part of german literature.

[@thomastheobscure351]

+Herbert Nikolaus Scheschy As Cioran himself puts it: «One does not inhabit a country; one inhabits a language. That is our country, our fatherland - and no other. Celan was a Jewish spirituality and a German poet. His social nationality? It's of little importance, and being a poet, mainly a poet of isolation, let us consider him stateless.

[@herbertnikolausscheschy7675]

Celan is inhabiting this language, indeed. Nothing more than this is of importance for a poet.

[@SteauaBucuresti]

There´s no such as thing as Austrian culture in Romania. NO SUCH THING!.

[@SteauaBucuresti]

Super PhunThyme IF Paul celan would have been considered Austrian and not Romanian he would have never written anything in The Romanian language. Yet The Romanian poems are The grreatest poems ever written. Paul Celan is part of the great Romanian tradition of literature and creativity.

[@jcastano]

He didn't write in Romanian. He wrote in German.

[@SteauaBucuresti]

@@jcastano He wrote a selected poems called the Romanian poems look it up.

[@SteauaBucuresti]

@@jcastano He did wrote in Romanan. Google Romanian poems!

[@Tc2025tc]

@@SteauaBucurestiMy maternal grandparents and great grandparents were born in Czernowitz (Cernauti) they were also German-speaking Jews. They did not feel Romanian, nor did most of them speak Romanian. And if so, only as a foreign language to communicate with the authorities. In the 1920’s and 1930’s they mainly experienced cultural oppression and forced romanization. In the 1940’s they were sent to the ghettos and concentration camps by Romanian soldiers. I would say, Greater Romania was their worst nightmare. Cultural and linguistic oppression and collaboration with the N@zis.