Fathomsuns and Benighted

About this book

Published in 1968 in German Fadensonnen (Fathomsuns) is Paul Celans sixth and most extensive collection of verse presenting 105 poems. Written between 1965 and 1967 they comprised the last major sequence released in the poets lifetime. Benighted (Eingedunkelt) a sequence of 11 poems appeared in an anthology of "abandoned works" by Celan and other authors. In these late works Celan practices the most complex and aggravated syntax and meaning: here his poetry shows Celan turning against his own lyrical powers. Paul Celan is the greatest German-language poet after Rilke. His intolerable wrestle with words and meanings evolved an unequalled insight and originality. He dominates European poetry in the last half of the 20th century by means of his attempt to redeem the human tongue from its terrible history in the post- Holocaust Europe.