In his Bremen Prize speech, Paul Celan said of language after Auschwitz that:
“Only
one thing remained reachable, close and secure amid all losses: language. Yes,
language. In spite of everything, it remained secure against loss. But it had
to go through its own lack of answers, through terrifying silence, through the
thousand darknesses of murderous speech. It went through. It gave me no words
for what was happening, but went through it. Went through and could resurface,
'enriched' by it all."
