Paul Celan quote

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."

1 comment:

davichon said...

Notice the tension between Brecht's words on this page and Celan's.

Central for myself"it's own lack of answers".

Central to these days: "murderous spech".