Paul Celan

Illegibility of
World
All twice-over
Robust Clocksagree the Cracked-Hour,hoarsely

tall poplars — human beings of this earth
black pounds of happiness — you mirror them to death
I saw you, sister, stand in that effulgence
Anonymous submission

Snowfall, denser and denser,dove-coloured as yesterday,snowfall, as if even now you were sleeping
White, stacked into distance
Above it, endless,the sleigh track of the lost
Below, hidden,presses upwhat so hurts the eyes,hill upon h...

There is a Land that’s Lost,
Moon waxes in its Reeds,and all that’s turned to frostwith us, burns there and sees
It sees, for it has Eyes,
Earths they are, and bright

Little Night: when youtake me within, within,up there,three Pain-Inches abovethe Floor: all the Shroud-Coats of Sand,all the Help-Nots,all, that stilllaughswith the Tongue -

She combs her hair, like the dead are combed,
She carries the blue fragments under her robe
She bears the fragment-world on a single skein
She knows the words, but she only beams

Of chased Gold, asyou told me to,
Mother,
I shaped the Candlestick, out of whichshe darkens for me in the midst offracturing
Being-Dead’s Daughter

Black milk of daybreak we drink it at sundownwe drink it at noon in the morning we drink it at nightwe drink it and drink itwe dig a grave in the breezes there one lies unconfinedA man lives in the house he plays with the serpents he writeshe writ...

I can still see you: an Echo,to be touched with Feeler-Words, on the Parting-Ridge
Your face softly shies away,when all at once there islamp-like brightnessin me, at the Point,where most painfully one says Never

Silence, like Gold cooked
Hands
Vast, grey,near as all that is
Sisterly-Shape:

The stone
The stone in the air, which I followed
Your eye, as blind as the stone
We werehands,we baled the darkness empty, we foundthe word that ascended summer:flower

I hear, the Axe has flowered,
I hear, the Place is un-nameable,
I hear, the Bread, that looks on him,heals the Hanged-Man,the Bread, his Wife baked for him,
I hear, they name Lifeour sole Refuge