RE: [Cz-L] Todesfuge dreams

David...

Let us welcome David Aaronovitch among Paul Celan's fan base; it's never too late to join. Despite some inaccuracies, he referred to Anselm Kiefer's paintings available at

http://czernowitzart.blogspot.de/

especially to "Dein goldenes Haar, Margarete"

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ws10-fTfSts/TaNnN7NrYCI/AAAAAAAAMio/FNrUkIU2oaQ/s1600/kiefer112b.jpg

and "Dein aschenes Haar, Sulamith"

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_0e7HWwD8ic/TaNewj2TBiI/AAAAAAAAMiI/czcpi1eODrk/s1600/kiefer95.jpg

and to the first pubication of the Romanian version of the "Deathfugue", i. e. "Tangoul Mortii":

http://czernowitzart.blogspot.de/2011/07/deathfugue-first-publication.html

Finally, the contrapuntal interpretation of Margarete - Sulamith is in line with established exegesis.

Edgar Hauster
Lent - The Netherlands

----------------------------------------
> From: glynn_at_spontini.co.uk
> To: czernowitz-l_at_list.cornell.edu
> Subject: [Cz-L] Todesfuge dreams
> Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 15:43:15 +0100
>
> There was an interesting piece in "The Times" last Monday 13th October, in
> David Aaronovitch's "Notebook" column.
>
> ********************
>
> “The paradox of Germany, in paint and poetry”
>
> Someone opens a door for you, hands you a thread like Ariadne’s and you
> follow it, having no idea where it leads. Last Thursday the British Museum
> let me in early to the “Germany: Memories of a Nation” exhibition, which
> opens this week. It is not a huge Tutankhamun of a display, but intimate
> with relatively few objects and pictures, each acting as a portal to a
> bigger thought beyond.
>
> The beginning of one thread is a small, beautiful picture by the artist
> Anselm Kiefer, who turns 70 next year. It is of yellow corn against a
> darkening sky and Kiefer has painted through the corn, in black, the words
> “dein goldenes haar, Margarethe” – your golden hair, Margarethe.
>
> Who was Margarethe? The caption told me that the line was from a poem and a
> poet I’d never heard of, “Todesfuge” (“Death Fugue”) by Paul Celan.
>
> When I got home I followed the thread. Celan was a Romanian Jew. As a
> young man he and his family had been sent to the camps and only he survived.
> In 1945, the year Kiefer was born, Celan wrote “Todesfuge”; it was published
> three years later and it has disrupted my autumn.
>
> Margarete (Celan spells it without the “h”) is, I imagine, a German beauty,
> with the same name as the woman whom the anti-hero of Goethe’s “Faust”
> loves. Shulamith is a Hebrew name. The final five lines read: “a man lives
> in the house your golden hair Margarete/ he sets his pack on to us he grants
> us a grave in the air/ he plays with the serpents and daydreams death is a
> master from Germany/ your golden hair Margarete/ your ashen hair Shulamith”.
>
> Since Thursday this is all I can think about; this being the paradox of 20th
> century Germany – “der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland” – and of the
> idealistic terrorist. It’s how desire and horror can coexist, how the
> killer can be a romantic, how we and everyone we love can become ash because
> of someone else’s dream. And now – if you’d never heard of Celan either –
> the thread is in your hand.
>
> ********************
>
> "Todesfuge" of course we know well. But I would be very interested to hear
> anyone's thoughts or reactions to this piece.
>
> Best wishes to all,
>
> David
=
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Received on 2014-10-20 18:52:27