Paul Celan

For my thesis, I've been reading a lot about the poetry was produced in and around the Holocaust. In a book by Shoshanna Felman and Dori Laub, I came across the poetry of Paul Celan. Here's some:

As one speaks to stone, like
you,
from the chasm, from
a home become a sister to me, hurled
towards me, you
you that long ago
you in the nothingness of a night,
you in the multi-night en-
countered, you
multi-you --.

and at times when
only the void stood between us we got
all the way to each other.

From Radix, Matrix and So Many Constellations

His work seems pretty dark. A lot of what's cited in the book is about Hitler forcing Jews to play music to accompany their friends busy digging their graves. I'll proceed with caution, but I think I might like his poems a lot.

jt