Posting on a major literary figurehead is always a daunting task, but even more so if the writer addresses a catastrophic period in history. So this is what was placed upon me when thinking about what I wanted to pass along about Paul Celan. Born into a Jewish family in Eastern Europe, Celan bore witness to the atrocities of World War II while in his younger 20's, the most cataclysmic being the deportation and eventual killing of his parents. After the war, Celan continued to write in his native German tongue but eventually resided as an exile in Paris, where he continued to live until his suicide by drowning in April of 1970.

During and immediately following World War II, Celan’s poetry ended up containing some of literature strongest verse capable of properly reflecting the war and the Holocaust. To such an extent, I defer posting further and simply advise that the poetry needs to be read if there’s a continuing interest. However, Celan’s later poetry I feel comfortable posting about as there occurred changes with both style and content. And this would relate to what Celan held onto most in order to confront the horrors he witnessed during the war:

“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 that was happening, but went through it. Went through and could resurface, ‘enriched’ by it all.”

I’d say that what Celan is referring to there is perseverance. The life instinct itself channeled through language. But Celan’s poetry did not become clearer and more focused after the war, but towards the opposite– increasingly abstract. But there was a minimalist approach as well, which signifies a striving towards an attempt for clarity amidst its owns ‘lack of answers’ and ‘terrifying silence’. Even if Celan could not believe in the world around him, he could continue to believe in the importance of language. Because of this, Celan felt a need to transform the German language either into something new entirely, or to recapture Germany’s incredible lyrical tradition. Probably both as Celan’s primary goal was to defy the ways in which Germany had used language during his lifetime.

There are movements in contemporary poetry which focus the lingual techniques used by social systems. I had thought of these schools as interesting, but not anything I would want to spend much time on. However, after reading and thinking about Celan, I can see the importance in always analyzing (and criticizing if need be) how language is used. As Celan realized, language is directly tied to our basic will for life. Taken to the next step, language reflects and shapes how we live. The most obvious example would be how politicians and religious leader’s speak, but the implications could extend whenever a word is spoken, heard or written. What we say and how we say it always matters.