Abend Der Worte

“Abend der Worte”/ “Evening of the Words” by Paul Celan (1955)

The All Poetry website offers a different (uncredited) translation of Celan’s poem. As noted above, many poets have translated Celan’s work. Reading different English translations can aid a reader in analyzing Celan’s difficult lines.

“Ars Poetica 62” by Paul Celan, translated by Rita Dove and Fred Viebahn (1998)

This is a more explicit example of a poem about the process of writing. However, both poems discuss searching for words and images. The translations of these works do their best to reproduce Celan’s penchant for coining novel compound words in German. For example, the “Wordnight” of “Abend der Worte”/ “Evening of the Words” can be compared here to “hymn-makers” (Line 6)—the compound word Hymnikern in German.

“Kleide die Worthöhlen”/ “Line the Wordcaves” by Paul Celan, translated by Pierre Joris (2014)

Written later in Celan’s life than “Abend der Worte”/ “Evening of the Words,” this poem also includes animal imagery. Here, Celan focuses on panthers, connecting animal nature with “wildnesses” (Line 6), similar to the way “Abend der Worte” links its mastiffs to “wilder” hungers.

“Sempre Bestia”/ “Always an Animal” by Luigi Pirandello, translated by Arthur V. Dieli

This poem by the Sicilian Pirandello, who wrote a generation before Celan, also explores the theme of animal nature and wildness, using the images of a lion, eagle, nightingale, and jackass.