RE: [Cz-L] The Genesis of Paul Celan's "Todesfuge"?

Eytan...

I'm really grateful for your sharing the background of your connection to Dr. John Felstiner and for facilitating the contact between John and me, which was very inspiring.

Thank you so much, Shabbat Shalom and have an amazing weekend!

Edgar Hauster • MacBook
Lent • The Netherlands

----------------------------------------
> To: bconcept_at_hotmail.com; czernowitz-l_at_cornell.edu
> Subject: Re: [Cz-L] The Genesis of Paul Celan's "Todesfuge"?
> From: fichblue_at_aol.com
> CC: berti.glaubach_at_gmail.com; catherine.darley_at_wanadoo.fr; info_at_studiolum.com
> Date: Thu, 23 May 2013 14:39:00 -0400
>
> I came to know Dr. Felstiner through my late mother, Pearl Spiegel
> Fichman. Felstiner carried on a long correspondence with my mother once
> he learned that Paul and Pearl were good friends in high school. She
> shared with Felstiner what she could and she is quoted / cited in
> Felstiner's writings on Celan. I learned from my mother of a lecture
> Dr. Felstiner was planning to give at Harvard, attended, introduced
> myself and had a chance to meet with him the following day to talk
> more. He was very kind and it was a great pleasure to speak with him.
>
> After my mother's death he sent to us all the letters she had written
> to him and we already had many, perhaps all, of the letters he had
> written to her.
>
> It was of course a pleasure to have the chance to provide Edgar the
> introduction.
>
> My mother had some thoughts about what she believed was guilt Celan may
> have felt for not saving his mother during the war; that somehow, if
> he'd done things differently, maybe she could have survived. I think
> that when my mother read Todesfugue and some other poems by Celan, she
> associated certain imagery with Celan's lost mother. Perhaps, in my
> mother's reading, as best I remember it, including the ashen hair . . .
>
> Sincerely,
> Eytan
>
> Eytan Fichman
> B.Arch., M.Arch., Ed.M.
>
> 42 / 11 Tran Binh Trong,
> Hai Phong, Viet Nam
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Edgar Hauster <bconcept_at_hotmail.com>
> To: Czernowitz Discussion Group <czernowitz-l_at_cornell.edu>
> Cc: Berti Glaubach <berti.glaubach_at_gmail.com>; Catherine Darley
> <catherine.darley_at_wanadoo.fr>; Eytan Fichman <fichblue_at_aol.com>; info
> <info_at_studiolum.com>
> Sent: Fri, May 24, 2013 1:10 am
> Subject: The Genesis of Paul Celan's "Todesfuge"?
>
> Czernowitzers... It is our fellow member Eytan Fichman, who facilitate
> my first contact to John Felstiner, Professor Emeritus of English at
> Stanford University, author of many standard works on Paul Celan and of
> the renowned biography "Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor,
> Jew" http://amzn.to/14CuD08 from which (p. 28) we learn on the genesis
> of Paul Celan's "Todesfuge" as follows: "Celan once remarked, that
> 'Todesfuge' arose from something he read about Jews playing dance tunes
> in a Nazi camp. He might have seen a pamphlet dated 29 August 1944, on
> 'The Lublin Extermination Camp' (Maidanek). In July 1944 the Red Army
> took Maidanek, and what they discovered was publicized worldwide, as
> propaganda. This pamphlet, issued by Moscow's Foreign Languages
> Publishing House, appeared in various cities and languages. Written by
> Konstantin Simonov, it reports that tangos and fox-trots were played
> during camp functions, and it contains other details suggestive of
> 'Todesfuge'. The earliest notice of Celan's poem may connect it to the
> Simonov pamphlet. 'Todesfuge' first appeared not in German but in
> Romanian (it was Celan's first published poem and his first under the
> name "Celan"). In May 1947, the Bucharest magazine Contemporanul
> printed Petre Solomon's translation, prefacing it with the note: 'The
> poem whose translation we are publishing is built upon the evocation of
> a real fact. In Lublin, as in many other 'Nazi death camps,' one group
> of the condemned were forced to sing nostalgic songs while others dug
> graves.'" Reasons enough for me to track Konstantin Simonov and -
> Eureka! - I succeeded in September 2011 to figure out, that Konstantin
> Simonov visited Czernowitz while touring the fronts in June 1944. I've
> released his report, dated June 21, 1944 (JTA) and headlined "ONLY
> ONE-THIRD OF CZERNOWITZ' 80,000 JEWS REMAIN ALIVE, RUSSIAN
> CORRESPONDENT REPORTS"
> at: http://bit.ly/11fmqzWhttp://bit.ly/16VvKMN Is it to keen to assume
> a possible personal meeting between Paul Celan and Konstantin Simonov
> during his visit in June 1944? John Felstiner wrote: "I'm grateful for
> your sharing the news of his visit, and yes, it's certainly *possible*
> they met. But who can confirm it? [...] If you look at the Preface of
> my Celan anthology (Norton), you'll see he wrote to a Czernowitz exile
> friend in Russia on July 1st, '44: 'I've come to Kiev for two
> days..." http://www.amazon.com/dp/0300089228/ref=rdr_ext_tmb So at
> least it appears he may have been in Czernowitz a week earlier. A bit
> later in my book I mention PC translating Simonov. What a story in the
> making!" Just imagine how exciting it was for me, to get such an
> encouraging feedback! Provided that my guess is correct, we might have
> identified another small piece of the puzzle related to the genesis of
> Paul Celan's "Todesfuge"! "But who can confirm it?" - Back to you,
> Czernowitzers! Edgar Hauster • MacBookLent • The Netherlands P.S.:
> In addition, this posting is to be understood as a "reward" for both,
> Berti and Catherine, for their sensitive and enlightening comments on
> Paul Celan's "Zwiegestalt - Twishape - Figure double" - "Let your
> eyes...": http://bit.ly/16V86jh
>
>
=
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Received on 2013-05-24 06:21:31