The language with which I make my poems has nothing to do with one spoken here, or anywhere.
Paul CelanHow you die out in me: down to the last worn-out knot of breath you're there, with a splinter of life.
Paul CelanOnly one thing remained reachable, close and secure amid all losses: language. Yes, language. In spite of everything, it remained secure against loss.
Paul CelanA poem, as a manifestation of language and thus essentially dialogue, can be a message in a bottle, sent out in the –not always greatly hopeful-belief that somewhere and sometime it could wash up on land, on heartland perhaps. Poems in this sense too are under way: they are making toward something. Toward what? Toward something standing open, occupiable, perhaps toward an addressable Thou, toward an addressable reality.
Paul Celan