Celan, Paul.

discussing his life in the intervening years since their last communication, his marriage in 1952, the death of his first child, informing him about his son Eric, his wife, his work as a translator and as a lecturer in German at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, providing him with the titles of his poetry publications ("..."Der Sand aus den Urnen", Wien 48; "Mohn und Gedächtnis", Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt 1952; "Von Schwelle zu Schwelle", ebda 55; "Sprachgitter", S. Fischer, Frankfurt 1959 - daneben Übersetzungen: Rimbaud, Das trunkene Schiff, Insel, Frankfurt 58; Valéry, Die junge Parze, ebda 60 - es ist die erste Übertragung ins deutsche, Gustav! - ; A. Block, Die Zwölf, Fischer 1959, Mandelstam, Gedichte, ebda 59, Sergei Jessenin, ebda 61..."), noting wryly that he has not remained unknown, observing that many young German lyric poets stand variously in his debt, alluding to the "Goll affair" and the subsequent defamation campaign, comparing it to the Dreyfus affair, the effect of which has led to cardiac problems, depression and difficulties in concentrating while reading; in the poignant letters from his last year Celan refers to the separation from his wife, alludes to his visit to Israel [in October 1969], where he was very happy, provides him with details of his recent publications ("...Vor drei Jahren erschien mein Gedichtband "Atemwende", Ende 1968 der Band "Fadensonnen"...), enquires whether he might visit him in Paris as his health does not allow him to journey to Russia, asks that they correspond regularly, since he needs his letters ("...ich brauche Deine Briefe..."), observes that he has put the utmost in human experience from this time into his poems, and, in noting that this paradoxically keeps him going, seems to allude to his forthcoming suicide, 17 pages, 4to (21 x 27cm), seven autograph envelopes, inscribed by Celan with his name and address, Paris, 6 February 1962-19 March 1970, a few tiny stains, very small tear to letter of 6 February 1962, some letters splitting slightly along folds, some light creasing



...Ach ja. Ich bin nicht unbekannt geblieben, Gustav, viele junge deutsche Lyriker verdanken mir Verschiedenes. Aber das verzeiht man mit Bukowiner Jüden denn doch nicht - : nachdem man mir, zum Zweck der Sichtbarmachung und entsprechenden Verhöhnung - ich übertreibe nicht, Gustav! - den Büchnerpreis verlieh, fing die wiederwärtigste - nein nazistische - Diffamierungskampagne an. Augenblicklich ist es so weit, daß man mich...für inexistent erklärt...Dieser so goldene Westen...Verzeih, daß ich davon spreche - aber: das Wasser steht mir augenblicklich bis zum Hals. (Es ist eine regelrechte Dreyfus-Affäre, lieber Gustav - und ausser meiner Frau kein Mensch weit und breit!...ich habe in meinen Gedichten ein äußerstes an menschlicher Erfahrung in dieser unserer Zeit eingebracht. So paradox das auch klingen mag: gerade das hält mich auch...

Barbara Wiedemann and Jürgen Köchel, Paul Celan and Gustav Chomed: "Ich brauche deine Briefe". Der Briefwechsel (Berlin, 2010)

 

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This is a remarkable, highly personal correspondence dating from the last eight years of Celan's life. 

Celan's correspondent is Gustav Chomed, a former school friend from the poet's Heimatstadt Czernowitz, part of the Kingdom of Romania before the Second World War, but afterwards assigned to the Ukrainian SSR by the Soviet Union. Celan's correspondence with Chomed as a whole extended over a period of 32 years, and was notable for its numerous extended breaks and intermissions. The first letter of the present group follows one from Chomed from the end of January 1962, which sparked off a short and intense flurry of communications, ending with Celan's letter of 3 May 1962 (not included here). Aside from some occasional letters in the intervening years, the second intensive phase of their correspondence began at the beginning of the last year of Celan's life (1970): three letters from this final year form part of this lot, including the letter of 19 March (with its poignant suggestion that Chomed visit him in Paris), written a month before the poet's death by his own hand. We understand that this letter may be the penultimate letter Celan ever wrote. On the following day Celan went on a 10-day journey of Europe, during which he sent, on 27 March 1970, a final letter to his Jewish friend, the poet Franz Wurm in Zürich (who had stayed with him in Paris during the first fortnight in March).