Poem inspired by Paul Celan published in Eratio

"We Drank Something Difficult to Name" is loosely inspired by a poem by the holocaust survivor Paul Celan and appears in the April edition of the contemporary poetry journal, Eratio." I cannot recommend his work highly enough and for those who don't know him, take a look at the biographical essays and poetry at www.poetryfoundation.org. 

I suggest starting with the August 17, 2026 essay on Celan by,Lucy Ives entitled "The Truth is in the Details."

 Celan's masterpiece and my homage, below, can be found at the Eratio site.  Those who know German (or use Google Translate) will understand that my work is not a translation but only an attempt to echo the elegiac mood of the original. 

Die Jahre von dir zu mir

     von Paul Celan

 

 

Wieder wellt sich dein Haar, wenn ich wein. Mit dem

Blau deiner Augen

deckst du den Tisch unsrer Liebe: ein Bett zwischen

Sommer und Herbst.

Wir trinken, was einer gebraut, der nicht ich war,

noch du, noch ein dritter:

wir schlürfen ein Leeres und Letztes.

 

Wir sehen uns zu in den Spiegeln der Tiefsee und

reichen uns rascher die Speisen:

die Nacht ist die Nacht, sie beginnt mit dem Morgen,

sie legt mich zu dir.

 

 

 

We Drank Something Difficult to Name

     after Paul Celan’s “Die Jahre Von Dir Zu Mir”

 

 

We drank something difficult to name.

We lived in the house of forgetting.

 

Your eyes were the color of skies.

Your long hair was like many autumns.

 

I ate strawberries from your mouth.

I breathed air from your lungs.

 

In the end I saw you, sister,

in that overwhelming light.

 

It is of our love that I am speaking.