Reading Paul Celan in english

January 9, 2006 5:57 AM

I think I'd like to read Paul Celan (in English). Where should I begin? Which volume(s) do I want (my preference is for books currently in print)? Which translators do I want?
posted by .kobayashi. to writing & language (8 comments total)

I’ve read John Felstiner’s and Michael Hamburger’s translations: and to someone who speaks no German, both seemed admirable attempts at Englishing Celan. I seem to recall reading an article or review by George Steiner which particularly praised Felstiner’s versions…
posted by misteraitch at 6:13 AM on January 9, 2006

I assume that you already know that Celan is a notoriously difficult author to translate, which follows directly from his own view that one's ability to write poetry is directly tied to one's "mother tongue." Anyway, I don't know how to answer your question. JM Coetzee wrote a good review of several different translations for the NYRB. It's available for purchase online, but also, I'm sure, can be found at any decent library. He doesn't tackle Hamburger. (I might have an electronic copy of the Coetzee on my computer at home, I can check this evening.)
posted by OmieWise at 7:15 AM on January 9, 2006

This volume from Duration Press has an essay by Rick Snyder called "The Politics of Time: New American Versions of Paul Celan." I quoted some of it here (with poetic examples), and there's some discussion in the comment thread.
posted by languagehat at 7:33 AM on January 9, 2006

I haven't read Joris, but I prefer Hamburger over Felstiner. Felstiner's book "Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor, Jew" is a great one, though, and if you have the time to read it, you will have a nuanced understanding of the decisions he made as a translator, and probably a deeper understanding of Celan's poetry (inasmuch as this is possible for those of us who cannot read German).

As an aside: my amicable advice is don't ever raise this question with a native German speaker, or be prepared for a long and brutalizing lecture about untranslatability. I'm speaking from experience.
posted by ori at 10:03 AM on January 9, 2006

Hah. And I'm not even a native speaker.

If you google you'll find quite a few threads where Celan has popped up here.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:57 AM on January 9, 2006

I usually get to "er pfeift seine Juden" and I have chills to my bones, every time I read it, even if by now I have it committed to memory

anyway:

No poet cracks open the possibilities for translation more than Paul Celan. With Celan, translation is not a supplemental activity but a hermeneutic necessity.

posted by matteo at 11:47 AM on January 9, 2006

You probably don't want to pick one translator instead of another - Hamburger or Felstiner or Joris or Fairley or whomever - because it's really interesting to read them against each other. There are some poems where I just flat out prefer one translation, like the Felstiner "Todesfuge" that has some German creeping back in (which is totally cheating since the effect is absent from the original, but I love it anyway). One of the reasons Celan's so popular in translation is that he's so hard to translate, so the differences between one take and another crack open the poem in surprising ways.

As far as volumes, I really like Fadensonnen.
posted by amery at 2:22 PM on January 9, 2006

There are some great answers here -- very helpful. Thank you all very much.
posted by .kobayashi. at 8:15 PM on January 9, 2006