Paul Celan

Paul Celan (23.11.1920 year - the year 20.04.1970)

Late one spring afternoon in 1970 with one of the bridges in the Seine in Paris rushed people, and as soon as the stone had disappeared under the water. Casual passers-by raised the alarm, dashing boat river police began looking. The flow of the Seine fairly rapid, only a few hours with the help of divers and special networking body found. In the coat pocket of the deceased found residence, . and a few minutes kartoteka Central Office Metropolitan Police of Paris issued a full particulars: Paul Leo Anchel, . Austrian citizen, . year of birth - 1920, . nationality - Jew, . profession - the writer, . continuously resided in Paris since 1950, Mr.,
. His books and publications signed pseudonym Paul Celan.

People who came the next day for identification, remembered: the victim could not swim, which means a jump from the bridge was apparent suicide. An incurable disease? Unrequited love? Money trouble?

However, Paris is used to suicide, especially poets. "After all, Monsieur Celan - Poet? In what language he wrote? German? And the French too?" Yes, there are talented people. And yet in Russian and Romanian? What a pity, what a pity ... Cremation tomorrow, gentlemen. Alas, the twentieth century and all that jazz, but with the funeral of suicide we have in France, there are some difficulties, but ... "

The regional center of independent Ukraine, the small town of Chernivtsi (up to 1944. - Czernowitz) has a very turbulent history. He belonged to the principality of Moldova, since 1775, Mr.. - Austria, in 1918. - Romania. Paul Celan came to this world in Czernowitz German-speaking Jew of Romanian citizenship. From 28 June 1940. to 22 June 1941. remained in the Soviet citizenship. Next three years, survived in an environment of continuous nightmare between life and death, has lost all his family survived, by sheer chance. In early 1945,. chose not expect favors from the new administration, crossed the Soviet border, and recovered in the Romanian Nationality. He worked in publishing, translating into Romanian Russian prose, wrote their own poems. Post-war Romania was no different from the post-war Eastern Europe - is that the traditional anti-Semitism there was a little bit stronger. Celan committed quiet drift toward the West, when in Vienna in 1948. his first book of poems "The sand from the urns, he made an effort and moved to Austria. However, in parts of Austria were still the Soviet troops (they had gone out only in 1955), and Celan moved away from sin in Paris. "The fifth paragraph, recently guaranteed the death, is now open border - Europe repent.

. Extremely focused on the literary work, Celan belonged to the type of celestial beings, the poets a little unworldly, which decided to write in a condescending tone
. The miracle of salvation from the scorching heat of the Nazi genocide has receded into the background to load the memory of his experiences. The most famous poem Celan - "Death Fugue" - can not read without a shudder. In his works, Celan was a wonderful way of classically smooth verse to vers libre, which not only obscured the meaning of broken lines, but begins the destruction of the verbal texture. Late Celan poems are like puzzles, impressionistic and difficult to grasp.

Celan spoke Russian fluently, that for a native of Northern Bukovina, in general, not typical. The German spelling of his name - Antschel - he rewrote an alias Zelan, but later wrote to him in the French manner Celan. Poetic flair and literary taste had been faultless. For the good will and choice Celan gave fifteen years hard labor of poetic translation. Thanks to him, three Russian poet - Alexander Blok, Sergei Yesenin, Osip Mandelstam - translated into German so that to make it better is hardly possible. Dan took him in France, the poet gave to the literary offering - fully translated into German, Paul Valц?ry, and Arthur Rimbaud.

Man closed and unsociable, Celan nevertheless tasted the full measure of literary fame. Paris opened the doors of all the lonely alien, . in Germany he was awarded the highest literary award - Georg Bц?chner Prize, . real (Romania) and potential (Israel) historical homeland poet lavished praise all conceivable, . about creativity Celan composed articles and monographs,
. But few people knew what was happening behind the door of his apartment in Paris.

As a descendant of the citizens of Austria and the Holocaust, Celan automatically received Austrian citizenship. He deliberately left the area of jurisdiction of the Soviet occupation authorities, so as not to bear the political turmoil that prevailed there, and knew only too well about the disappearance of former Austrian citizens in the cellars of SMERSH.

. In Paris, the intellectual and literary capital of Europe, he moved exclusively to the creative purpose - in the minds of western people permanent residence abroad was not associated with the concepts of "treason" and "treason"
. In France, Celan lived on the rights of resident foreigners, the French nationality (which in our days is not easily available) is not claimed. Fast-found fame, writers and translation fees provided him a decent standard of material well-being. In other words, the career of a young man from a forgotten corner of the Carpathian land God was almost dizzying: live and rejoice!

Fate decreed otherwise. The tumult of the war, the apocalyptic horror of what he had seen and complete human solitude in the world would not let Celan and eventually crippled him. This happened with many Jewish intellectuals, who were Holocaust survivors, and for many years after the war. The load experienced, seem to be dropping from their shoulders, did not disappear - it is slowly crushed and killed a fugitive from the zone of accidental death, it was a sort of "delayed genocide 'delayed action ptomaine era of unprecedented murder.

. Celan did not suffer from a mental disorder, not "filled up" in the vulgar sense of the word
. He just burned down, exuding, could not find a more appropriate expression for the force that was overwhelmed by his burnt heart, rising from the bottom to the top, he chose not to begin the descent ...

In 1975. in the collection of contemporary Austrian poetry were published in Russian 43 poems of Paul Celan. It seems to be quite a few, but it. Figure of "exile" was considered too odious to continue dating, but released in 1987. Literary Encyclopaedia Celan was a little of what is called "the German poet," but again reproached emigration. Apparently, there has not been without Louis Aragon, which at one time Celan did not accept the offer to translate Mayakovsky's good for the Soviet foreign exchange fee.

. The last, posthumously published book of poems by Paul Celan called prophetically - "The Inevitability of light.