Celan, Paul

Celan, Paul
orig. Paul Antschel

born Nov. 23, 1920, Cernăui, Rom.
died May 1, 1970, Paris, France

Romanian poet who wrote in German.

When Romania came under Nazi control during World War II, Celan, a Jew, was sent to a forced-labour camp; his parents were murdered. He moved to Vienna in 1947 and published his first volume of poetry, The Sand from the Urns, in 1948. His second volume, Poppy and Memory (1952), established his reputation in West Germany. He produced seven more volumes before taking his own life by drowning in the Seine. Celan's dense and complex verse is marked by his experience of World War II; his early poem "Todesfuge" is one of the most famous poetic expressions of the Holocaust.

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▪ German poet
pseudonym of  Paul Antschel  
born Nov. 23, 1920, Cernăuți, Rom. [now Chernovtsy, Ukraine]
died May 1, 1970, Paris, Fr.

      poet who, though he never lived in Germany, gave its post-World War II literature one of its most powerful and regenerative voices. His poetry was influenced stylistically by French Surrealism, and its subject matter by his grief as a Jew.

      When Romania came under virtual Nazi control in World War II, Celan was sent to a forced-labour camp, and his parents were murdered. After working from 1945 to 1947 as a translator and publisher's reader in Bucharest, Celan moved to Vienna, where he published his first collection of poems, Der Sand aus den Urnen (1948; “The Sand from the Urns”). From the outset his poetry was marked by a phantasmagoric perception of the terrors and injuries of reality and by a sureness of imagery and prosody.

      Settling in Paris in 1948, where he had studied medicine briefly before the war, he lectured on language at the École Normale and translated French, Italian, and Russian poetry, as well as Shakespeare, into German. His second volume of poems, Mohn und Gedächtnis (1952; “Poppy and Memory”), established his reputation in West Germany. Seven volumes of poetry followed, including Lichtzwang (1970; “Lightforce”). The fullest English translation of his work is Speech-Grille and Selected Poems (1971). He died by his own hand.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Celan, Paul — orig. Paul Antschel (23 nov. 1920, Cernăui, Rumania–1 may. 1970, París, Francia). Poeta rumano que escribía en alemán. Cuando Rumania cayó bajo el poder alemán durante la segunda guerra mundial, Celan, que era judío, fue enviado a un campo de… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Celan, Paul — pseud. di Anczel, Paul …   Sinonimi e Contrari. Terza edizione

  • Celan, Paul — (1920 70)    German poet. He was born in Czernowitz and after the war lived in Bucharest, where he worked as a translator. In 1947 he escaped and went to Vienna and Paris, continuing to translate and also teaching languages. Several of his poems… …   Dictionary of Jewish Biography

  • Paul Antschel — Paul Celan im Alter von 18 Jahren (Passfoto, 1938) Paul Celan [paʊl ˈtselan] (* 23. November 1920 in Czernowitz, damals Rumänien, heute Ukraine; † vermutlich 20. April 1970 in Paris; eigentlich …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Paul Celan — (IPA2|ˈpaʊl tseˈlaːn; November 23, 1920 – approximately April 20, 1970) was the most frequently used pseudonym of Paul Antschel, one of the major poets of the post World War II era. [ Celan is an anagram of the Romanian spelling of his surname,… …   Wikipedia

  • CELAN (P.) — CELAN PAUL (1920 1970) L’œuvre de Celan est inséparable de son destin de Juif. Celan est en exil dans la vie comme dans le langage. Son nom n’est qu’un asile, l’anagramme d’un autre nom: Paul Anczel, né le 23 novembre 1920 à Czernowitz (Bucovine) …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Paul Benjamin — Paul Auster, September 2008 Paul Benjamin Auster [pɔːl ˈbɛndʒəmɪn ˈɔːstɚ] (* 3. Februar 1947 in Newark, New Jersey) ist ein US amerikanischer Schriftsteller. Zudem arbeitet er als …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Celan — Celan,   Paul, eigentlich P. Ạntschel, Schriftsteller, * Tschernowzy 23. 11. 1920, ✝ (Selbstmord) Paris Ende April 1970; Sohn deutschsprachiger jüdischer Eltern; studierte zeitweise Medizin in Frankreich, dann Romanistik in Tschernowzy; 1942… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Celan — (Paul Antschel, dit Paul) (1920 1970) poète français d origine roumaine et d expression allemande. Survivant du génocide (sa famille fut exterminée par les nazis), il vécut à Paris de 1948 jusqu à son suicide en 1970. Son oeuvre, à l écriture… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Paul — /pawl/ for 1 3, 5; /powl/ for 4, n. 1. Saint, died A.D. c67, a missionary and apostle to the gentiles: author of several of the Epistles. Cf. Saul (def. 2). 2. Alice, 1885 1977, U.S. women s rights activist. 3. Elliot (Harold), 1891 1958, U.S …   Universalium

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