Breathturn into Timestead

by Paul Celan

sich übergebende | vomiting: The German verb has two meanings, a literal sense of über-geben, “to hand or give over,” and the figurative sense of “to vomit,” just as in the poem “Es kommt” / “There also” (p. 442) Celan uses the expression erbricht (“breached”), where the German verb also has two meanings, one describing an infraction, a breach.

  “Eingewohnt-entwohnt” | “Acclimatized-disclimatized”

  December 31, 1966, Paris. Compare Franz Wurm’s letter of December 15, 1966, mentioning the publication of French translations of poems by Celan in the Nouvelle Revue Française: “There lay the December issue … and your name was as acclimatized [eingewohnt] on it as is possible for someone who was forced to take a long time to acclimatize himself [lange hat einwohnen müssen].” Celan answered his friend in a letter of December 21, 1966: “‘Acclimatized,’ that’s what you say. Maybe. Acclimatized-disclimatized, seems more like it to me” (PC/FW, letters #33 and #34).

  -lötige | carat: The German Lot is an old measure expressing the purity of silver and equivalent to our “carat” (now used only for gold), before the use of the millesimal system.

  “Riesiges” | “Giant”

  January 1, 1967, Paris.

  Quincunx | quincunx: This is the single occurrence of the word in Celan’s oeuvre. Meaning literally “five-twelfths”—from the Latin quinque, “five,” and uncia, “twelfth part”—a quincunx is an arrangement of five things in a square or rectangle, with one at each corner and one in the middle. Originally a Roman coin whose value was five-twelfths of an as, a quincunx is a standard pattern for planting an orchard. The English physician Sir Thomas Browne, in his philosophical discourse The Garden of Cyrus (1658), elaborates upon evidence of the quincunx pattern in art and nature and mystically as evidence of “the wisdom of God.” Browne possessed several books by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), including his Ad vitellionem paralipomena (1604), which is credited as first introducing the pattern to astronomy and astrology in modern times (adapted from Merriam-Webster and OED).

  “Gewieherte Tumbagebete” | “Neighed tombprayers”

  January 4, 1967, Paris. The poem draws on a FAZ article of January 4, 1967, reporting on the funeral for the Austrian writer Heimito von Doderer, someone early on much compromised by adherence to Nazi ideology. Celan owned his novel Die Strudelhofstiege oder Melzer und die Tiefe der Jahre, inscribed to him with the dedication: “For Paul Celan, cordially, Heimito von Doderer, Munich, December 1954.” In a letter to Gisèle of January 4, 1967, he notes: “I have written a new poem, hard and harsh.”

  Tumbagebete | tombprayers: Tumbagebete are mentioned in the FAZ article, and the word had already been underlined by Celan in Heinrich Böll’s Haus ohne Hüter (House without guardians) (BW, p. 766).

  zerstrahlten | irradiated: Reading traces for this word in Celan’s copy of Arno Schmidt’s The Egghead Republic.

  “Die Ewigkeiten tingeln” | “The eternities honkytonk”

  January 18, 1967, Paris.

  “Müllschlucker-Chöre” | “Trashswallower-choirs”

  January 21, 1967.

  Frieselfieber | Miliary fever: Wiedemann links this term to Mozart, who is said to have suffered toward the end of his life from a “fever accompanied by ‘Frieseln’” (BW, p. 766), that is, miliary fever—“miliary” referring to the appearance of millet-sized bumps on the skin.

  Dezember | December: Mozart died on December 5, 1791.

  III

  “Entteufelter Nu” | “Dedeviled instant”

  February 28, 1967. On January 30 Celan attempted suicide by stabbing himself with a letter opener, barely missing his heart. His wife saved him in extremis. Transported to Boucicaut hospital in the fifteenth arrondissement, he was immediately operated on, as the stab had punctured his left lung and gravely damaged it. On February 13 he was interned in the Sainte-Anne psychiatric clinic, in the care of Professor Delay, and though allowed outings starting at the end of April, he was confined to Sainte-Anne’s until October 17. More than half of the poems in Fadensonnen | Threadsuns (starting with this, the third cycle), as well as a large part of Lichtzwang | Lightduress (the first four cycles and parts of the fifth), were composed during this stay.

  Bocklemünd: The name of neighborhood of Cologne, which includes a large Jewish cemetery visited by Celan on October 9 or 19 while traveling in Germany to pay homage to his childhood friend Marcel Pohne, who died in an accident in December 1964.

  “Hüllen” | “Shells”

  March 1, 1967. The following poem was written on the same day.

  Jeden Pfeil, den du losschickst | Each arrow you loose: The “you” here is the poet himself, using, as he often does, a reference to his astrological sign—Sagittarius, the archer.

  “Die Liebe” | “Love”

  March 1, 1967. The preceding poem was written on the same day.

  zwangsjackenschön | straitjacket-pretty: When Celan had attempted to kill Gisèle in November 1965, he had been taken to the psychiatric hospital bundled in a straitjacket. Compare the poem “Schlafbrocken” | “Sleepmorsels” (p. 136).

  Kranichpaar | pair of cranes … da er durchs Nichts fährt | drives through the void: Wiedemann (BW, p. 768) points to Bertolt Brecht’s poem “Die Liebenden” | “The Lovers,” from The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Jenny says in the second act: “Sieh jene Kraniche im großen Bogen!” | “Look at those cranes sweeping wide!” … “So mag der Wind sie ins Nicht entführen / wenn sie nur nicht vergehen und sich bleiben.” | “So it matters not, if the wind should lead them off into the void, / as long as they don’t perish and they have each other” (translation by Guy Stern). See also the “pair of cranes” in the poem “Herzschall-Fibeln” | “Heartsound-fibulas” (p. 274) and the crane in “Wenn du im Bett” | “When you lie” (p. 48).

  “Du warst” | “You were”

  March 10, 1967. On that day Celan received a letter from Gisèle that said: “I can no longer endure Paris, or this apartment with the telephones, and all that drama we are living through. I will not be able to come on Sunday, I am leaving tomorrow evening before I have a complete nervous breakdown, which wouldn’t help anyone—” The underlining is in Celan’s hand, who added in the left margin “Thursday!” (PC/GCL, #480).

  “Zur Rechten” | “To the right”

  March 16, 1967. On this day Celan sent a letter (PC/GCL, #483) to his wife to wish her well on her impending fortieth birthday.

  Zur Rechten—wer? | To the right—who?: In the original volume this poem stood on the right side of the page with the previous poem, “Du warst” | “You were,” on the left side.

  Tödin | Shedeath: This female form of the word Tod, “death,” occurs only once in German literature, according to the Grimms’ dictionary, namely, in a text by Abraham a Sancta Clara, where it is used as a local dialectical expression connoting nächtliche Wehklage, “nightly lament.” One should, however, remember that in French the word death”—la mort—is feminine.

  außer- / himmlische Ort | outer- / heavenly place: Celan had first written “am hyper-uranischen Ort” | “At the hyper-uranian place,” a reference to Plato’s Phaedrus, line 247C, which speaks of a tópon hyperouránion, “the place beyond heaven—none of our earthly poets has ever sung or ever will sing its praises enough!” Plato’s Greek word—hyperouranos—describes his realm of the pure forms, that is, Platonic ideas.

  “Die abgewrackten Tabus” | “The dismantled taboos”

  March 18, 1967.

  Die abgewrackten Tabus | The dismantled taboos: Reading traces in Peter Chotjewitz’s review of Konrad Bayer’s Der sechste Sinn (Literatur und Kritik 12 [March 1967]: 122–26) (LPC): “The writer in this situation for himself and as a dismantled [circled by Celan] institution just good enough to give proof of his own uselessness” (p. 122). And: “But each attack on and each victory, no matter how small, over a taboo is only an illusionary attack and an illusionary victory. The public success of books supposedly freed of taboos [circled by Celan
] is only the expression of a widespread tendency for social ersatz-satisfaction” (p. 123).

  Grenzgängerei | bordercrisscrossing: See Chotjewitz: “This attempt by a novel to be simultaneously an essay about the novel in the sense in which Heinrich Vornweg once described literary border-crossing [Grenzgängerei] [circled by Celan] as literary activity become autonomous, proposes a multitude of enigmas.” The word is used today mainly to describe workers crossing borders in the morning to work in one country and returning to their own country in the evening, that is, border crosser, border worker, cross-border commuter.

  “Wutpilger-Streifzüge” | “Rage-pilgrim raids”

  March 20, 1967.

  “Stille” | “Silence”

  March 30, 1967.

  “Die Eine” | “The one”

  March 31–April 1, 1967. A first draft of the poem was jotted down in Edmond Jabès’s Le Livre des Questions III | The Book of Questions III.

  eigen- / sternige / Nacht. // Aschendurchfadmet | self- / starred / night. // Threathed through by ashes: In the first draft, Celan had “von / Fäden durchwoben” | “by / threads woven through.” Compare also reading traces in Jabès: “C’est un homme de vérité, disait de Reb Massé, Reb Eloun; il marche sur des tapis de cendres” (He is a man of truth, Reb Eloun said of Reb Massé; he walks on carpets of ashes) (Celan’s underlines; p. 40), and “Il a dit: Le mal est quelquefois l’habit du bien. Et il pensait: L’étoile est l’ornement et le bouton de l’ample manteau des nuits.” (He said: evil is sometimes the garment of the good. And he thought: The star is the adornment and the button of night’s ample mantle.”) (marginal mark on p. 46; BW, p. 770).

  “Bei Glüh- und Mühwein” | “Over mulled and toiled wine”

  April 4, 1967. On this day, after several weeks without news, Celan received a letter from Gisèle informing him that she had returned to Paris, a letter he immediately answered, reaffirming, against Gisèle’s doubt, his conviction that “there had to be a future, for us three, one way or another” (PC/GCL, #485).

  Bei Glüh- und Mühwein | Over mulled and toiled wine: Compare the poem from Die Niemandsrose “Bei Wein und Verlorenheit” | “Over Wine and Lostness”).

  Hohlzahn | hollow tooth: The German word Hohlzahn literally means “hollow tooth.” I have been unable to trace the word in a maritime context, as sail, mast, or anchor would suggest. The word is also a botanical term referring to the plant hemp nettle (Galeopsis tetrahit).

  “Schief” | “Aslant”

  April 5–6, 1967.

  Hörklappe | hearing-flap: The first draft had Hörkappe, in the context of a reading trace and citation from Freud’s The Ego and the Id: “Schief, wie uns allen, / sitzt dir die Hörkappe auf // Freud XIII, D. 252.” The reference pertains to the following quote: “One can add that the ego wears a ‘hearing-cap,’ but on one side only, as attested by the anatomy of the brain. You could say that the cap sits crooked (awry, aslant).” The form “Hörklappe” | “hearing-flap” may have been a typo that Celan then sanctioned (TA, Fadensonnen, p. 118).

  Schläfenfirn | temple-firn: Compare a similar neological word formation in the term “Schläfenzange” | “templeclamps” in the poem of the same name (p. 10).

  “Die herzschriftgekrümelte” | “The heartscriptcrumbled”

  April 8, 1967. This is the first poem written after the conversation with his wife on April 6 in which Gisèle expressed her wish to live separately from then on. Celan also wrote the next poem on that day, and started the following one (BW, p. 771).

  “Unverwahrt” | “Unkept”

  April 8, 1967. The first draft was written on the torn-out title page of a paperback edition of Thomas Mann’s Der Zauberberg | The Magic Mountain (TA, Fadensonnen, p. 122). Other notes for the poem can be found in Celan’s copy of Thomas Bernhard’s novel Verstörung (meaning something like “devastation,” “deterioration,” “blight,” though it was translated as Gargoyles).

  “Das unbedingte Geläut” | “The unconditional chiming”

  April 8–11, 1967.

  “Die Ewigkeit” | “Eternity”

  April 11, 1967. Draft provided with place of composition: C.P.D. (Clinique Professeur Delay). The same day he wrote the next poem and started the following one.

  Die Ewigkeit | Eternity: Compare several poems with the same or similar titles throughout the oeuvre.

  Cerveteri: An Italian city, at center of the Etruscan culture, that Celan had visited during a stay in Rome for a reading at the Goethe-Institut in April 1964. As this poem was written so shortly after his wife’s announced intention to live separately, he may also have had in mind the letter she had sent him on January 19, 1965, from Rome, after a visit to the Etruscan museum in the Villa Giulia (BW, p. 772). In that letter she had written: “An hour … among the vases, the statuettes, the jewelry, the magnificent sarcophagi remarkably well presented. I remember before all a very beautiful Sarcofagi degli sposi, deeply moving in its serenity, charm, love, which made me pray to be with you for all eternity, and to know that it can be thus is a marvelous help. To have seen these two lovers, serene and united, calm and so tender in death has made me believe that we two also, with our difficult life, but beyond all full of love, will maybe eventually have the right to share the fate of these two Etruscan lovers, that I saw on January 19, 1965, in the Villa Giulia in Rome while thinking of you” (PC/GCL, #198).

  Asphodelen | asphodels: A flower famously connected with the dead and the underworld. Homer, in chapters 11 and 24 of The Odyssey, describes it as covering the great meadow (ἀσφόδελος λειμών), the haunt of the dead. It was planted on graves, and is often connected with Persephone, who appears crowned with a garland of asphodels. See also, for example, the use made of this flower by William Carlos Williams’s 1953 poem “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower” (The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, ed. Christopher MacGowan [New York: New Directions, 1991], p. 2:310).

  “Spät” | “Late”

  April 11, 1967.

  “Die Sämlinge” | “The seedlings”

  April 11–12, 1967.

  causa secunda: In scholastic philosophy and theology, if God was given as the causa prima, the first cause of creation, then what was created, the world, beings, mankind included, were the causa secunda, or second cause.

  “Die Hügelzeilen entlang” | “Along the hill lines”

  April 13, 1967.

  Hügelzeilen | hill lines: Reading trace in the final chapter of Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, which Celan was reading then, as a note in a letter of April 10 to Gisèle makes clear: “After lunch, diverse readings, among them two chapters of the Zauberberg which I adored at eighteen: ‘Snow’ and ‘Walpurgis Night’ (the latter containing the dialogue between Hans Castorp and Clawdia Chauchat mainly in French). Well, I found it insipid, not at all ‘cool,’ as Eric would say, not for him, but, alas, neither any longer for us. Alas? No, there’s need for less regrets. But harshnesses (self-made), but rock faces emerging from the depths, but spirit that’s rigorously anti-bourgeois” (PC/GCL, #489). Fernand Cambon, a student at the École Normale Supérieure in those years, remembers Celan’s dislike for Mann. When he told Celan that he was reading The Magic Mountain, Celan pulled a face and said sarcastically: “Oh, Thomas Mann—he’s a pasticheur!” (PC/GCL, 2:353–54).

  “Komm” | “Come”

  April 21, 1967.

  Komm | Come: Compare the poem “Komm” | “Come” from the volume Zeitgehöft | Timestead (p. 436).

  Nervenzellen | nerve cells … multipolar | multipolar … Rauten- / gruben | rhomboid / fossas: Reading traces in Celan’s copy of Adolf Faller’s book on human anatomy, Der Körper des Menschen: Einführung in Bau und Funktion (1966).

  “Entschlackt” | “Deslagged”

  April 21, 1967.

  Wenn wir jetzt Messer wären, / blankgezogen wie damals | If we were knives now, / unsheathed like back then: Compare the poem “La Contrescarpe” from Die Niemandsrose, speaking to Celan’s first arriva
l via Kraków and Berlin in Paris, specifically the lines:

  … Under

  paulownias

  you saw the knives stand, again,

  made sharp by distance.

  (Compare pp. 513–515)

  “Seelenblind” | “Soulblind”

  April 22, 1967.

  Seelenblind | Soulblind: reading traces in Reichel/Bleichert: “If this [temporal lobe] is also destroyed, the the capacity to learn is irremediably lost. After injuries to areas 18 and 19, man loses the ability to differentiate between and recognize visually perceived objects (‘soulblindness’; optical agnosia)” (p. 142).

  hinter den Aschen, / im heilig-sinnlosen Wort | behind the ashes, / in the holy-meaningless word: Above a draft of the poem, Celan had written the third line of Osip Mandelstam’s poem “In Petersburg” in Russian, which says literally “the blessed, senseless word,” though Celan here says “heilig-sinnlos” | “holy-meaningless,” whereas in his Mandelstam translation volume he will write: “jenes selige, deutunglose Wort” (that blessed meaningless / uninterpretable / word) (TA, Fadensonnen, p. 138).

  Hirnmantel | cerebral mantle: Anatomically, the pallium (Latin for “cloak,” “mantle”)—the layers of gray and white matter that cover the upper surface of the cerebral cortex in vertebrates.

  Sehpurpur | visual purple: Rhodopsin, a biological pigment in photoreceptor cells of the retina that is responsible for the first events in the perception of light. See also reading trace in Faller: “Vitamin A is responsible for the normal development of the visual purple in the cornea of the eye” (p. 243).

  “Anrainerin” | “Borderess”

  April 23, 1967. Eve of Passover.

  “Möwenküken” | “Gullchicks”

  April 24, 1967. Passover begins; it lasts until May 1. The first two stanzas of this poem are based on the following passage in Adolf Portman’s Das Problem der Urbilder in biologischer Sicht (Zurich: Rhein-Verlag, 1950), p. 420:

  As example we may use the trigger for the begging response of newly hatched herring gull chicks, as studied by von Tinbergen. They direct their begging to a red spot on the yellow lower beak of the parent bird … This is not, however, a special effect of the red stimulus color: a black spot works even better, as decoy heads show, and a blue-and-white spot is also quite effective. A beak without a spot, however, provides nearly no stimulus. Experiments show further that the red spot placed somewhere else, anywhere on the head, for example, is a very minor stimulant; only the typical disposition on the lower beak triggers optimal begging responses. The structure the chick needs for its behavior is thus not a randomly located stimulus color, but a “stimulus gestalt,” a configuration. This has to be hereditarily predetermined in an ordered fashion in the chick’s nervous system.