Reachable, near and not lost, there remained in the midst of the losses this one thing: language. It, the language, remained, not lost, yes, in spite of everything. But it had to pass through its own answerlessness, pass through frightful muting, pass through the thousand darknesses of deathbringing speech. It passed through and gave back no words for that which happened; yet it passed through this happening. Passed through and could come to light again, enriched by all this.
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About Paul Celan
Paul Celan was a 20th-century German language poet of romanian birth, holocaust survivor. Paul Celan was a German-speaking Romanian poet, Holocaust survivor, and literary translator. He adopted his pen name following the war and resided in France from 1949, becoming a naturalized French citizen in 1955. Read more on Wikipedia →