Breathturn into Timestead (44 page)

“Aus Engelsmaterie” | “Out of angel-matter”

May 1–2, 1967. During the first week of May, Celan was reading Gershom Scholem's
On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead
. This poem too can be read as a mystical commentary, the erotic component being assimilated to the
unio mystica
, and the “Schwester” to the Shekinah (compare “Nah, im Aortenbogen” | “Near, in the aortic arch,” and commentary for same, pp. 200 and 534). The “Kanäle” | “channels” and the “Wurzelkrone” | “rootcrown” do indeed refer to notions of kabbalistic origin. Pöggeler also points to Jewish mysticism in relation to this poem when he writes: “According to ancient teachings, the emanations of the divine ur-ground are made of an especially sublime matter, the same as the matter angels are made of, here the Enlivening-Just [der Belebend-Gerechte] living, according to the Zohar, with the Shekhinah, sleeping it toward [zuschläft] mankind and thus also the poet” (
SPUR
, p. 355).

der Belebend-Gerechte | the Enlivening-Just: Reading trace in Scholem: “The last triad consists of
Netsa
(endurance), Hod (splendor and majesty), and Yesod (the foundation) or Tsaddik (the Righteous One). This completes the picture of the creative forces, enabling them to operate together through the living force of God, by which everything finds its place and is maintained. As the living force by excellence, it is likewise the force of procreation, represented through symbols of male sexuality” (pp. 42–43).

noch zu zersamenden Knochen | still-to-be-dissemened bones: Compare “In Prag” | “In Prague” (p. 52) and its lines: “Knochen-Hebraïsch, / zu Sperma zermahlen” | “bone-Hebrew, / ground to sperm.”

vom Osten gestreut | strewn from the East: Compare Isa. 43:5: “Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west.”

“Die freigeblasene Leuchtsaat” | “The free-blown lightcrop”

May 1–2, 1967.

Leuchtsaat | lightcrop: Compare Scholem: “The Zohar likewise discusses the ‘sowing of light' by the righteous in its explication of Psalm 97:11, ‘Light is sown for the Righteous One'” (
Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism
, p. 113).

“Kleide die Worthöhlen aus” | “Line the wordcaves”

May 2, 1967. Much of the anatomical vocabulary can be traced back to Celan's reading of Faller's book on anatomy, especially the terminology for the heart: “Vorhöfe, Kammern, Klappen” | “courtyards, chambers, drop doors,” which refer to the heart's two atria, the four chambers, and the valves. Given the underlying architectonic images Celan creates by a literal use of those terms as they structure the poem, I have decided on a literal translation of the terms, rather than a strictly anatomical one. For a close reading of the poetics proposed by this poem, see Introduction (p. xlvii). See also footnote 13 of Werner Hamacher's essay “The Second of Inversion: Movements of a Figure Through Celan's Poetry” for a fascinating reading of this poem. A rather daring translation of the poem's third and fourth line gives:

… infur and ecspelt,

adsense and absense,

though the clearly intended sound-puns of “infur” (infer) and “absense” (absence) seem to me to go beyond what the original states.

“Die Hochwelt” | “The highworld”

May 3, 1967.

“Die brabbelnden” | “The muttering”

May 5–12, 1967.

“… auch keinerlei” | “… though no kind of”

May 7, 1967. On one of the early drafts, Celan has jotted down a nearly illegible note that reads “Freud repetition compulsion,” which points to the core reference, namely
Beyond the Pleasure Principle
(
TA
,
Fadensonnen
, p. 171), specifically the following marginally marked (and partially underlined) sentences: “If we take into account observations such as these, based upon behavior in the transference and upon the life-histories of men and women, we shall find courage to assume that there really does exist in the mind
a compulsion to repeat which overrides the pleasure principle
” (Bantam Books, 1967, pp. 45– 46). “They arise, rather,
in obedience to the compulsion to repeat, though it is true that in analysis that compulsion is supported by the wish (which is encouraged by ‘suggestion') to conjure up what has been forgotten and repressed
” (p. 61). “
The manifestations of a compulsion to repeat
(which we have described as occurring in the early activities of infantile mental life as well as among the events of psycho-analytic treatment) exhibit to a high degree an instinctual character and, when they act in opposition to the pleasure principle, give the appearance of some
‘daemonic'
force at work” (p. 65). “The opposition between the ego or death instincts and the sexual or life instincts would then cease to hold and the compulsion to repeat would no longer possess the importance we have ascribed to it” (p. 79).

otterhaft | otterlike: The German word
Otter
can refer to two distinct animals: (1) to the acquatic carnivorous mammal of the genus
Lutra
, called “otter” in English; (2) to the viper, from Middle High German
nater
,
Schlange
,
Natter
. The latter word gave us the English “adder.” Depending on one's choice, different interpretations—or at least colorations of interpretation—are possible. In this context I prefer the aquatic image of swarming otters.

Grau-in-Grau | grisaille: A pun on the opposition between
graue Substanz
and
weiße Substanz
, the gray and the white brain matter; the part of the brain richest in nerve cells has a grayer coloring. See also Freud,
Beyond the Pleasure Principle
, p. 48: “We have merely adopted the views on localization held by cerebral anatomy, which locates
the ‘seat' of consciousness in the cerebral cortex—the outermost, enveloping layer of the central organ.
”

Camaïeu | monochrome: Means both a cameo (in jewelry) and a monochrome (in art: painting in a single line).

“Nah, im Aortenbogen” | “Near, in the aortic arch”

May 10, 1967. Draft on inside cover of Celan's book on anatomy by Adolf Faller (
TA
,
Fadensonnen
, p. 173), where much of the anatomical vocabulary can be found (
BW
, p. 782).

Hellblut | light-blood: Faller: “Blood saturated with oxygen, appears light red” (p. 1,370).

Mutter Rahel | Mother Rachel: Compare Gen. 29 and 30, 23 ff, 35, 16 ff: “And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. / And she conceived, and bore a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach: / And she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son …

And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. / And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. / And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin. / And Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.”

Compare also Scholem (Celan's underlines): “However, we should also mention some other personifications that were subsequently combined with the image of the Shekhinah, like Sophia/Wisdom, which has appeared repeatedly since
the famous image of Jeremiah (chap. 31) of Rachel weeping for her children as they go off into exile; or the personification of Zion as a maternal figure, in contrast with the phrase ‘daughter of Zion' that alone appears in Scripture
” (
On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead
, p. 145).

weint nicht mehr | weeps no more: Jer. 31: “Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.” Reading trace in Scholem: “This presence may be manifested in a supernatural glow of light, known as the radiance (ziv) of the Shekhinah” (p. 147). Celan noted in the lower margin of his Scholem three lines from a Jewish lullaby by Moyshe-Leyb Halpern, the Yiddish-language modernist poet (1886–1932): “Wet di mame Rochl wejnen / Wet Meschiech nit mer kenen / Doss gewejn aribertrogn” (When Mother Rachel weeps, the Messiah will no longer be able / to carry over [bear] the weeping).

Ziw / Ziv: The light, in Hebrew,
Ziv
, is also a reference to the mystical light of the Shekinah. “Shekinah” is a word derived from the Hebrew verb
, meaning literally to settle, inhabit, or dwell. In the kabbalistic tradition, based on readings of the Talmud, the Shekinah represents the feminine attributes of the presence of God (Shekinah being a feminine word in Hebrew). Scholem writes in his essay “Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der kabbalistischen Konzeption der Schechinah” (quoted by Schulze, “Mystische Motive,” p. 490): “God's dwelling, his Shekinah in the most literal sense, means … his visible or hidden presence in a given place. This presence can manifest itself as an otherworldly light shimmer—just such a light (Ziv) of the Shekinah is often mentioned.”

In this tradition, the Shekinah becomes not only the queen, daughter, and bride of God but also the mother of everyone in Israel. See also Jerry Glenn: “Rachel, the first among the women upon whom the house of Israel is built, is said to have risen from her grave during a dark period of Jewish history and begged God to save her ‘children,' the Jewish people. God was moved and promised her that Israel would be restored” (Glenn,
Paul Celan
, p. 153).

It would seem that Celan himself had a mystical light experience in the company of Nelly Sachs, first in Zurich and then in Paris. The following letters make reference to and would seem to corroborate this experience (
PC
/
NS
, #105 and #108):

December 8, 1967

My dear Nelly,

it was so good to hold your letter in my hands and to be reminded by you yourself of that light that shone over the water in Zurich and then in Paris. Once, in a poem, a name for it even came to me through hebrew.

And with my warmest congratulations upon your birthday!

Your Paul

 

Paris, March 22, 1968

My dear Nelly,

thank you for your lines, for the reminder of that light.

Yes, that light. You will find it named in my next book of poetry, which is to appear in autumn—called by a Hebrew name.

Warmest!

Paul.

“Wirf das Sonnenjahr” | “Throw the solar year”

May 11, 1967.

Sonnenjahr | solar year: Compare Freud: “According to the large conception of Wilhelm Fließ (1906), all the phenomena of life exhibited by organisms—and also, no doubt, their death—are linked with the completion of fixed periods, which express the dependence of two kinds of living substance (one male and the other female) upon the solar year” (pp. 80–81).

Pantoffeltierchen | slipper animalcule: The more common translation of
Pantoffeltierchen
would be “paramecia,” but I prefer to use the more cumbersome but more descriptive “slipper animalcule”—for the perceived sarcasm associated with the reemergence of the zoon after passage through the
Heimat
, as being associated with wearing
gemütliche
slippers. Compare Freud: “An American biologist, Qoodruff, experimenting with a ciliate infusorian, the ‘slipper-animalcule,' which reproduces by fission into two individuals, persisted until the 3029th generation (at which point he broke off the experiment), isolating one of the part-products on each occasion and placing it in fresh water” (p. 84).

bewimpert | ciliated: The adjective here qualifying “Pantoffeltierchen” | “slipper animalcule” needs to be translated as “ciliated,” which, however, hides the rhyme on “Wimper” / “eyelash” that runs through all of Celan's work.