Quotes by Paul Celan

About Paul Celan:

Paul Celan is pronounced Chelàn, and was derived from transposing the syllables of his surname). He became one of the major German-language poets of the post-World War II era.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Ein Nichts waren wir, sind wir, werden wir bleiben, blühend. die Nichts-, die Niemandsrose.

Paul Celan

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 ...

Paul Celan

Don't sign your name between worlds, surmount the manifold of meanings, trust the tearstain, learn to live.

Paul Celan

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

Paul Celan

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

Paul Celan

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

The heart hid still in the dark, hard as the Philosopher's Stone.

Paul Celan

Reality is not simply there, it must be searched and won.

Paul Celan

Only truthful hands write true poems. I cannot see any basic difference between a handshake and a poem.

Paul Celan

U izvoru tvojih očiju more drži svoju riječ. Ja ondje bacam srce koje je boravilo kod ljudi.

Paul Celan

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, pas...

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 t...

Paul Celan

They are the efforts of someone who, overarced by stars that are human handiwork, and who, shelterless in this till now undreamt of sense and thus most uncannily in the open, goes with his very being into language, reality-wounded and reality-seeking...

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

Wer auf dem Kopf geht, der hat den Himmel als Abgrund unter sich.

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 win...

Paul Celan

Speak you too, speak as the last, say out your say. Speak- But don’t split off No from Yes. Give your say this meaning too: Give it the shadow. Give it shadow enough, Give it as much As you know is spread round you from Midnight to midday and midni...

Paul Celan

Poetry is a sort of homecoming.

Paul Celan

Author Bio

  • NamePaul Celan
  • DescriptionRomanian poet and translator
  • AliasesPaul Antschel; Paul Ancel
  • BornNovember 23, 1920
  • DiedApril 28, 1970
  • CountryFrance; Romania
  • ProfessionLinguist; Lyricist; Poet; Translator; Writer
  • AwardsGeorg Büchner Prize; Literaturpreis Der Stadt Bremen; Herder Prize