‘TIEF / IN DER ZEITENSCHRUNDE’: READING TIME IN PAUL CELAN'S POETICS

Abstract

ABSTRACTConcepts of time play a crucial role at the centre of Paul Celan's poetics and poetry, though not in any formal, systematic, or schematic sense, even when they appear to be informed by the philosophy of, for example, Martin Heidegger or Edmund Husserl. Celan expands this notion beyond any mere idea of time as one theme among others, or time as a mere measurable quantity, to include and integrate historical time, especially with reference to the Shoah and the so‐called ‘Goll‐Affäre’. In Celan's work, time becomes a structure upon and around which he explores the limits of the sayable or the ineffable. Examples of this can be seen in his early to late poetry, in his various writings on poetics, and not least in the extensive notes he made when writing Der Meridian, his acceptance speech for the Georg Büchner Prize. This article looks at three poems: ‘Regenflieder’ (1943), ‘Köln, Am Hof’ (1957), and ‘Rebleute’ (1970), all of which approach notions of time differently, along with two translations (Guillaume Apollinaire, Jean Daive). The consistency inherent in Celan's poetic vision is suggested by the simultaneity of his images and poetic insights.