Paul Celan

Glottal Stop: 100 Poems by Paul Celan

Translated by
Nicholas Popov & Heather McHugh

Wesleyan University Press of New England


When I don't know, when I don't know,
without you, without you, without a You,

they all come,
acephalic by choice,
the brainless life­laureates
of the Youless
people of the lord:

Ashrei,

a word with no meaning,
transtibetan,
ejaculated into
the helmeted ovaries
of Pallas
Athena
The Jewess,

and when he,

he,

foetal,

strums a Carpathian not-not,

then the
Allemande
starts tatting
her im-
mortal self-sick
song.

Gigantic,
trackless, tree-
studded
hand-
tract,

Quincunx.

The branches, guided by nerves,
swoop down on
the already
red-tripped deep shadow,
a snakebite before
Rose-
rise.