35+ Paul Celan Quotes On Death, Mystic And Haunting

Paul Celan was a Romanian-born Jewish poet and translator who wrote in German. He is best known for his haunting Holocaust poetry, which often uses imagery from his own experience as a survivor of Nazi concentration camps. He won the Georg Büchner Prize in 1960, and is considered one of the most important poets of the 20th century. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Paul Celan on death, love, life.

Top 10 Paul Celan Quotes

1. Only truthful hands write true poems. I cannot see any basic difference between a handshake and a poem.
2. Reality is not simply there, it does not simply exist: it must be sought out and won.
3. Don't sign your name between worlds, surmount the manifold of meanings, trust the tearstain, learn to live.
4. Poetry is a sort of homecoming.
5. The poem is lonely. It is lonely and en route. Its author stays with it. Does this very fact not place the poem already here, at its inception, in the encounter, in the mystery of encounter?
6. German poetry is going in a very different direction from French poetry.... Its language has become more sober, more factual. It distrusts "beauty." It tries to be truthful.
7. The two heart-grey puddles: two mouthsfull of silence.
8. Illegibility of this world. All things twice over. The strong clocks justify the splitting hour, hoarsely. You , clamped into your deepest part, climb out of yourself for ever.
9. who is invisible enough to see you
10. How you die out in me: down to the last worn-out knot of breath you're there, with a splinter of life.

Paul Celan Short Quotes

• Black milk of daybreak we drink it at sundown.
• A nothing we were, are, shall remain, flowering: the nothing--, the no one's rose.
• They've healed me to pieces.
• He speaks truly who speaks the shade.
• I went with my very being toward language.
• Reality is not simply there, it must be searched and won.
• The heart hid still in the dark, hard as the Philosopher's Stone.
• no one bears witness for the witness
• you're rowing by wordlight
• in the air, there your root remains, there, in the air

Paul Celan Famous Quotes And Sayings

With wine and being lost, with less and less of both: I rode through the snow, do you read me I rode God far--I rode God near, he sang, it was our last ride over the hurdled humans. They cowered when they heard us overhead, they wrote, they lied our neighing into one of their image-ridden languages. — Paul Celan

rush of pine scent (once upon a time), the unlicensed conviction there ought to be another way of saying this. — Paul Celan

A poem, being an instance of language, hence essentially dialogue, may be a letter in a bottle thrown out to the sea with the-surely not always strong-hope that it may somehow wash up somewhere, perhaps on the shoreline of the heart. In this way, too, poems are en route: they are headed towards. Toward what? Toward something open, inhabitable, an approachable you, perhaps, an approachable reality. Such realities are, I think, at stake in a poem. — Paul Celan

A poem, as a manifestation of language and thus essentially dialogue, can be a message in a bottle, sent out in the –not always greatly hopeful-belief that somewhere and sometime it could wash up on land, on heartland perhaps. Poems in this sense too are under way: they are making toward something. Toward what? Toward something standing open, occupiable, perhaps toward an addressable Thou, toward an addressable reality. — Paul Celan

Death is a master from Germany. — Paul Celan

Tall poplars--human beings of this earth! — Paul Celan

Read! Read all the time, the understanding will come by itself. — Paul Celan

The language with which I make my poems has nothing to do with one spoken here, or anywhere. — Paul Celan

We are told that when Hölderlin went 'mad,' he constantly repeated, 'Nothing is happening to me, nothing is happening to me.' — Paul Celan

With a changing key, you unlock the house where the snow of what’s silenced drifts. Just like the blood that bursts from Your eye or mouth or ear, so your key changes. Changing your key changes the word That may drift with flakes. Just like the wind that rebuffs you, Clenched round your word is the snow. — Paul Celan

There's nothing in the world for which a poet will give up writing, not even he is a Jew and the language of his poems is German. — Paul Celan

Spring: trees flying up to their birds — Paul Celan

There was earth inside them, and they dug. — Paul Celan

Each arrow you shoot off carries its own target into the decidedly secret tangle — Paul Celan

Only one thing remained reachable, close and secure amid all losses: language. Yes, language. In spite of everything, it remained secure against loss. — Paul Celan

Life Lessons by Paul Celan

1. Paul Celan's poetry emphasizes the importance of resilience in the face of suffering and tragedy. He encourages us to find beauty in the darkness and to embrace our own unique experiences.
2. Through his work, Celan reminds us to stay true to ourselves, to embrace our differences, and to never forget our past.
3. He teaches us to be open to the possibilities of the future, to find strength in our vulnerability, and to never give up hope in the face of adversity.