Paul Celan's Translation of Emily Dickinson's "Because I

could not stop for Death—"

Bianca Rosenthal

The Emily Dickinson Journal, Volume 6, Number 2, Fall 1997, pp. 133-139
(Article)

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/edj.0.0087

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/245388

Access provided by Tulane University (2 Dec 2018 09:42 GMT)

 BIANCA ROSENTHAL

Paul Celan's Translation of Emily Dickinson's

"Because I could not stop for Death - "

Paul Celan. Gesammale Y/erke in Fünf Bänden.

Suhrkamp 1983.

Der Tod, da ich nicht halten könnt, Because I could not stop for Death -
hielt an, war gern bereit. He kindly stopped for me -
Im Fuhrwerk saß nun er und ich The Carriage held but just Ourselves -
und die AnSterblichkeit. And Immortality.

Ihm gings auch langsam schnell genug, We slowly drove - He knew no haste
und ich hatt fortgetan And I had put away
das Fronen und das Müßiggehn, My labor and my leisure too,
so freundlich war der Mann. For His Civility -

Ein Schulhof kam mit kleinem Volk, We passed the School, where Children strove
das miteinander rang . . . At Recess - in the Ring -
Es hat das Korn uns nachgeäugt, We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain -
wir sahn: die Sonne sank. We passed the Setting Sun -

Dann hielten wir, da stand ein Haus: We paused before a House that seemed
emporgewelltes Land. A Swelling of the Ground -
Das Dach - kaum daß es sichtbar war, The Roof was scarcely visible -
Das Sims - ein Hügelrand. The Cornice - in the Ground -

Jahrhunderte seither, doch keins Since then - 'tis Centuries - and yet
war länger als der Nu, Feels shorter than the Day
da ich mir sagt: Wir halten ja I first surmised the Horses Heads
auf Ewigkeiten zu! Were toward Eternity -

//% aul Celan (1920-70) is one of the leading German poets of the twen-
\X7 tieth century; for despite, or because of, the alleged enigmatic and
hermetic quality of his work, international readership is increasing
with the appearance of new editions and translations, and the body of schol-
arship continues to mount. Celan's reputation rests on ten volumes of poet-

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ry written between 1945 and his death in 1970, also on his poetics, most
notably Der Meridian, and on his translations which have as yet been too lit-
tle recognized.
Celan, under the influence of Walter Benjamin, moulds his translation
into an attempted interpretation, which brings out the potential implications
inherent in a text, sets it into his own language and stylistic elements, a
process, however, which also functions to change the original meaning. In
his translations, Celan typically uses a fractured syntax and ellipses, parat-
actic constructions as well as idiosyncratic punctuation and frequent
caesurae leading to pauses, breaks, and discontinuities. He also includes
non-redundant duplication and subtle use of verbal aspect, perhaps influ-
enced by the Russian language.
Celan's rendition of twenty-one Shakespeare sonnets is probably the
best known of his translations. Emily Dickinson is the only other English
speaking poet whose works Celan translated to any extent - in this case, ten
poems that have been published. One can speculate that Celan, despite large
differences, was attracted to Dickinson by her themes of time and death as
well as by her tone of skepticism and sarcasm, which he intensified to the
extreme and thus transformed the poetry into something exceedingly mod-
ern. Celan also translated four poems by Marianne Moore, two by Frost, and
one each by Donne, Marvell, and Housman, as well as Lewis Carroll's
"Jabberwocky," the later in accord with his own sense of word play and
neologism.
There is almost no information regarding Celan's preoccupation with
Emily Dickinson. In 1961 the German journal Die Neue Rundschau published
eight poems, entitled "Acht Gedichte," by the American poet without the
original English text, and without naming the sources (Dickinson). Two
years earlier Celan's translation of "Because I could not stop for Death - "
had appeared in Almanach S. Fischer 73 (1959), followed in 1963 by the pub-
lication of the translation of "At Half past Three" in Insel-Almanach. We do
not know when Celan became acquainted with Dickinson's poems, or the
length of time he spent translating her poems. As long as we are not
acquainted with the original texts that Celan might have used, all specula-
tions regarding the affinity between the two poets remain largely uncon-
vincing. In her dissertation, Shira Wolosky discerned "a similarity between
their techniques" in the sense that both employ a radically dislocated syntax
(Wolosky). This she sees as a linguistic expression of a shattered modern
world view and concludes as follows: "an aesthetic resemblance between
the two poets is rescued from the accidental. The poetics of each instead

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 Bianca Rosenthal

emerge as recognitions of and responses to common problems which extend

beyond the literary and the personal." Considering the very small number
of Dickinson poems translated by Celan, any further discussion of affinities
only makes sense when structural considerations are equally considered. In
his landmark study Leonard M. Olschner affirms that one cannot establish
with certainty which text Celan used (Olschner). This will only be possible
after examining the Celan manuscripts, notes, and unpublished Dickinson
materials in the Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach, Germany. The com-
plete edition of Celan's works (AUeman) lists two possible sources: Poems oÃ-
Emily Dickinson (Todd), and The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (Bianchi).
It is more generally agreed, as Dan Blue indicated, that Celan used the 1955
Johnson transcriptions, though with dozens of changes, and twice (P217 and
P712) he omitted entire stanzas, i. e., the fourth in P712.
This poem (P712), often acclaimed the greatest of all Dickinson poems,
shows some traits that are typical for her. Death is accepted without ques-
tion as part of life and again, even at the end, is not questioned but trans-
formed or admitted into Eternity. The final stanza brings a certain Christian
idea of salvation. We find a tendency towards ellipsis, such as in lines 4, 8,
and 20, where one can notice the ambiguity of the elliptic style, depending
on whether one interprets "the Horses Heads" as actively moving toward
"Eternity - " or in a passive manner, elliptically being led, so to speak.
Characteristic for Dickinson is the mixing of abstract words such as
"Immortality," "Civility," and "Eternity -," as well as the rhetorical repeti-
tions which structure the poem, especially the anaphora "We" used three
times.
In line 7, Celan omits the possessive "My" and changes it into the defi-
nite article das; "labor" and "leisure" become the abstract concepts das
Fronen und das Müßiggehen. More convincing appear the transformations of
individual adjectival attributes and conditional determinants into main sen-
tences. Thus one becomes aware of the ideological background, the dis-
putable traditional grammatical categories, especially their hierarchical divi-
sions into nouns and mere attributes, as well as some unnecessary expan-
sions.
Lines 11-13: "We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain - / We passed the
Setting Sun - / We paused before a House that seemed"; "es /wf das Kom uns
nachgeäugt, / wir sahn: die Sonne sank. / Dann hielten wir, da stand ein Haus."
Here, a genitive attribute, an adjectival attribute, and a place determinator
are being elevated (revalorized) in the manner indicated before. Not only is
the "Grain" personified — this was the case with Dickinson also, it becomes

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the subject of the sentence, and it rises therefore in value. This in turn shows
that our traditional world view, the partition into major and minor or sec-
ondary categories, into active and passive, into subject and object, is being
challenged. Celan's principle of serial placement of terms produces a
changed understanding, where a direct encounter with the universe replaces
orientation cues that generally characterize discursive speech and which
also add distance to meaning. In close connection with the above, Celan
emphatically attempts to transform Dickinson's world where it is lodged in
a detached concreteness or objectification (Gegenständlichkeit), into a process
where things are happening (Vorgängigkat), not the process of a temporal
(time-connected) event. "The Setting Sun -," line 12, "untergehende Sonne,"
becomes "wir sahn: die Sonne sank." Dickinson's ellipses compress the state-
ments; Celan, however, dispenses with almost all the hyphens, except for
lines 15 and 16. In a highly characteristic way, Celan sets colons where there
were none. In line 12 a colon accentuates the alliteration (Sonne sank); it also
emphasizes the speaking voice by citing it more directly than Dickinson
does. Then another colon, in stanza 4, deeply changes the thought of
Dickinson's "a House that seemed." Similarly in stanza 5 "I first surmised"
becomes da ich mir sagt. . . . Celan postulates a command, by changing the
hyphen into an exclamation point.
In his translation, Celan uses the same composition, number of stressed
syllables, and down beats. There are a few stylizations that go beyond the
original, where it, the original, appears rather simple: line 5 for instance, "We
slowly drove"; "Ihm gings auch langsam schnell genug;" or line 9, "We passed
the School where Children played [sic]" (the Johnson version has "strove"
for "played"); "Ein Schulhof kam mit kleinem Vb/fc."He replaces the abstract
line 8 "For his Civility" with a paraphrase, so freundlich war der Mann.
Celan's paraphrazing achieves greater clearness, vividness. Lines 11 and 12,
"We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain - / We passed the Setting Sun - "; "Es
hat das Korn uns nachgeäugt, / wir sahn: die Sonne sank -" Dickinson's direct
objects, "Gazing Grain," "Setting Sun," become subjects with Celan. The "We"
is relegated to a more passive role. In lines 17 and 18, "Since then - 'tis
Centuries - but each / Feels shorter than the Day"; "Jahrhunderte seither, doch
keins / war länger als der Nu," Dickinson's centuries are a synecdoche for
earthly existence, the concept comes from a greater distance, it constitutes a
logical surveyance. Celan changes "shorter," line 18, into länger, and conse-
quently replaces the category of time namely "the Day" with that of the
instant der Nu. Whereas Dickinson's "Day" creates a closer experience of the
event by the speaker, Celan introduces a concept of time that is almost too fleet-
ing to be experienced.

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 Bianca Rosenthal

Most of the ten poems by Dickinson that Celan translated are of a

descriptive nature, almost like a report; only two, "Father - I bring thee,"
which demonstrates hints of a prayer, and "Let down the Bars, Oh Death,"
can be classified as a form of address. Therefore, it is of more importance,
when Celan interjects, especially in the reportorial texts, direct speech and
address where this change from the third to the second person represents
without doubt a dramatization of experience. Thus in lines 19 and 20: "I first
surmised the Horses Heads / Were toward Eternity - "; "da ich mir sagt: Wir
halten ja / auf Ewigkeiten zu!," Dickinson omits the relative pronoun thus
suggesting a greater directness, but it is Celan who really changes to direct
speech. If Dickinson's vehicle is "the Horses Heads," whatever they stand
for, Celan omits them in his translation. As Dan Blue succinctly summarizes:

Linguistically we find this difference reflected in notions of

naming. Dickinson matches levels. She finds the word that
fits and pins her word to language with an accuracy not to
be availed: her names are diagnoses. For Celan, naming is
solicitation, the gentlest orphie beckoning. Both name by
nouns, but the nouns operate differently, the one a specifi-
cation, the other an address. (148-49)

Another characteristic of Celan's translation is the experiential contin-

gency (Erlebnisbezug), the personal affliction, where Celan augments
Dickinson's blueprint almost into the theatrical. This can be seen in the use
of "I" and "We." With Dickinson, the lyrical I acts as its own counterpart,
whereas with Celan (see last stanza), there is a spectacular form of self-
address: "da ich mir sagt: Wir halten ja / auf Ewigkeiten zu!" Whereas
Dickinson's lyrical I only plays with the thought in the elliptical "the Horses
Heads / were towards Eternity," Celan, in using the plural form Wk,
acknowledges death as a collective phenomenon and gives it a definitive
tone by employing a complete sentence that ends with an exclamation mark:
"Wir halten ja / auf Ewigkeiten zu!" Celan intensifies the action of the original
through the use of the word Nu as a time reference, the aspect-like modes of
the verbs, the amplifying particle da and the more acute "Wir halten" instead
of "I first surmised" in line 19.
Like Dickinson, Celan proclaims "Death" as a universal law; his vision,
though has the cutting edge of an annunciation; that means Emily
Dickinson, by using the metaphor "Eternity -," had already foreshadowed
Celan's ideal of poetry as a form of experienced temporality. Through serial

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placements of terms and emphasis on action happenings, Celan causes the

reader to experience reality as temporality within time. The reflection of the
outer world through a lyrical I which experiences it is bound to be more fun-
damental. Aside from some existential postures and inner perspectives,
direct speech and dramatizations of consciousness call our attention to this.
Let us consider the journey with "Death" in line 5, "We slowly drove - He
knew no haste"; "Ihm gings auch langsam schnell genug." Celan takes from the
original the paradox langsam schnell, which he translates, as is typical for
him, into an oxymoron. More important, though, is the perspectivistic man-
ner in which this is done, and which provides additional emphasis. The
poetic I knows how Death feels; moreover it recreates this feeling in its
report.
The variants that I was privileged to peruse at the Deutsches
Literaturarchiv in Marbach, Germany illustrate some of the difficulties
Celan faced in translating Dickinson's poem. It is therefore not surprising
that Celan's Dickinson translations essentially confirm what an analysis of
his earlier Shakespeare translations already demonstrated. As Rainer
Lengeier pointed out in his article, "Emily Dickinson in der Manier Paul
Celans," Celan's special language can be summarized with the cue words
"serialization," "active happening," and "relative experience," whereby the
translation of the Dickinson poems tend to illustrate these points in a
stronger fashion than in the case of Celan's translations of Shakespeare.
Celan also elaborates in a more consequent manner the patterns which he
used as a point of departure in the American poet's poems.

Works Cited

AUeman, Beda, and Stefan Reichert, eds. Paul Celan: Gesammelte Werke in Fünf Bänden.
Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1983.
Bianchi, Martha Dickinson, ed. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston: Little,
Brown, 1924.
Blue, Dan. "Dickinson Abroad: The Celan Translations." Acts: A Journal of New
Writing 8-9 (1988): 148-49.
Dickinson, Emily. "Acht Gedichte." Die Neue Rundschau 72 (1961): 36-39.
Langeier, Rainer. "Emily Dickinson in der Manier Paul Celans." Literatur in
Wissenschaft und Anterricht 20:1 (1987).
Oischner, Leonard M. Der Feste Buchstab: Erläuterungen zu Paul Celans
Gedichtübertragungen. GTtttingen and Zürich: Vanhoeck and Ruprecht, 1985.

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 Bianca Rosenthal

Todd, Mabel Loomis, and T. W. Higginson, eds. Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston:
Roberts Brothers, 1890.
Wolosky, Shira. "Linguistic Poetics: Literary Responses to Modern Cultural Crisis."
Diss. Princeton A, 1981.

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