Untitled

by Paul Celan

translated from the German by Franz Wright

Dull sun
across a black gray desolation.
A tree-
high thought
grasps the shade of light: there are
still songs
to sing past
man.

 

Paul Celan, was born in Czernovitz, Romania, on November 23, 1920. He is regarded as one of the most important poets to emerge from post-World War II Europe. He committed suicide in 1970.

Franz Wright’s latest book is And Still the Hand Will Sleep in its Glass Ship and his latest translation The Unknown Rilke: Expanded Edition. With the help of a Guggenheim he is working on two new collections of poems. (1991)