True Poetry is Antibiographical | Paul Celan, 1920-70
Paul Celan, 1920-70 Paul Celan, Microliths, 2020
…
“True poetry is antibiographical. The poet’s homeland is his poem and changes from one
poem to the next. The distances are the old, eternal ones: infinite like the cosmos, in which
each poem attempts to assert itself as a — minuscule — star. Infinite also like the distance
between one’s I and one’s You: from both sides, from both poles the bridge is built: in the
middle, halfway, where the carrier pylon is expected, from above or from below, there is the
place of the poem. From above: invisible and uncertain. From below: from the abyss of
hope for the distant, the future-distant kin.”
.
Paul Celan, from “Microliths”
trans Pierre Joris
poem to the next. The distances are the old, eternal ones: infinite like the cosmos, in which
each poem attempts to assert itself as a — minuscule — star. Infinite also like the distance
between one’s I and one’s You: from both sides, from both poles the bridge is built: in the
middle, halfway, where the carrier pylon is expected, from above or from below, there is the
place of the poem. From above: invisible and uncertain. From below: from the abyss of
hope for the distant, the future-distant kin.”
.
Paul Celan, from “Microliths”
trans Pierre Joris
.
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