In many of Celan's poems, the suffering of the Jews and his own suffering lies at the heart of his glacial imagery. Jewish destruction and persecution acts as a catharsis for much of his writings. However, in view of how he fits ice metaphors together with the Jewish religion, snow and ice, along with the entire glacial paradigm, serve redemptive functions. No longer do they stand simply for silence, but they become the means by which he purges himself of his suffering. Snow and ice are also the focal point for Celan's feelings about religion and his attitude toward God, for they mock and praise him. As the Jewish Holocaust author Elie Wiesel shows in his book Night, one of the many ways to accuse God is to praise him through prayer. On the eve of Rash Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, thousands of Jewish prisoners made their oblations to God, while in his mind Wiesel considered himself the stronger for being the Accuser (Wiesel 64-65). Celan does the same; by praising God and in turn coming to terms with his conception of God, he understands his suffering.
Celan's relationship to his religion and God is summed up in a quote by Richard Rubenstein: "When I say we live in the time of the death of God, I mean that the thread uniting God and man, heaven and earth, has been broken. We stand in a cold, silent, unfeeling cosmos, unaided by any purposeful power beyond our resources. After Auschwitz, what else can a Jew say about God?" 8 Celan attempts to answer this question.
In one of Celan's most noteworthy poems, LE MENHIR (GW I, 260), he compares glaciers with the Jewish people and places them within a cold, unfeeling environment. Here he alludes to the Jewish people, in particular to the legend of the Wandering Jew.
LE MENHIRWachsendes
Steingrau.Graugestalt, augen-
loser du, Steinblick, mit dem uns
die Erde hervortrat, menschlich,
auf Dunkel-, auf Weißheidewegen,
abends, vor
dir, Himmelsschlucht.Verkebstes, hierhergekarrt, sank
über den Herzrücken weg. Meer-
mühle mahlte.Hellflüglig hingst du, früh,
zwischen Ginster und Stein,
kleine Phaläne.Schwarz, phylakterien-
farben, so wart ihr,
ihr mit-
betenden Schoten.
The word Menhir is derived from the Celtic words men meaning "stone" and hir meaning "long." The word Menhir is currently defined as "a single upright rude monolith usually of prehistoric origin." It refers specifically to stones left by the passing of glaciers. With ablation of glacial ice, deposits accumulate in front of the glacier. These form cirques (small crescent shaped lakes found near earthen deposits), moraines (large earthen deposits of soil and silt), and large rocks. These stones are called "erratische Blöcke" or erratic blocks. The present day usage of the word menhir is also "wandering stone." It is called this because of their seemingly erratic placement based upon where the glacier recedes and deposits them. Celan uses this concept of wandering stones in connection with glaciers to represent the Jews. Their placement is also scattered and sporadic throughout the world, having been wrested from their home and displaced according to the whims of others.
Jewish and Christian legends mention the Wandering Jew (Glenn 22). This legend is based in part upon the figure who rebuffed or struck Jesus on his way to the Crucifixion. He is supposedly condemned to wander the Earth until the Second Coming. The Wandering Jew is used often as a target for Anti-Semitism in modern day portrayal of Jews (Encyclopaedia Judaica 259). According to the 1602 German version of this legend, the figure's name is known as Ahsuerus. In later literature, this became the most common appellation of the Wandering Jew. The Germans often refer to him in a pejorative light as "the eternal Jew" or Der ewige Jude, which in English and French became the "Wandering Jew" (Encyclopaedia Judaica 262). The word ewig appears in Celan's works 26 different times and in various forms. Often this term has a religious connotation.
This same wandering image refers to both the Jew of legend and to the stones found in glaciers. In the poem LE MENHIR (GW I, 260) one detects both images: "Graugestalt, augen- / loser du, Steinblick, mit dem uns / die Erde hervortrat, menschlich, / auf Dunkel-, auf Weißheidewegen, / abends, vor / dir, Himmelsschlucht." The appearance of the word menschlich together with images of grayness and stone can denote the ancient appearance of both the stone and the legendary figure. Its human appearance, coupled with the phrase, "die Erde hervortrat," gives the Jewish image a sense of endlessness. The entire poem has a decidedly Jewish overtone with the mention of phylacteries phylakterien or the Jewish prayer boxes which are worn on both the forehead and hands.
A possible reason for Celan's use of images of erratic stones and the Wandering Jew is to define the eternal nature of the Jewish religion while stressing its displacement. The Menhir or wandering stone stands as a symbol for the Jews' displacement from their original home. Often these stones can be found in obscure locations, standing apart from all other objects. The Jews are seen in the same light, attempting to adapt to the surroundings, yet sometimes unable to do so effectively. IN DER LUFT (GW I, 290-291) contains several images of this Wandering Jew. Here he is referred to as "der Verbannte" (the Banned or Exiled One). However, in the next line he is called "der Verbrannte" (or the Burned or Cremated One), a term synonymous with other Holocaust victims.
Groß
geht der Verbannte dort oben, der
Verbrannte: ein Pommer, zuhause
im Maikäferlied, das mütterlich blieb, sommerlich, hell-
blütig am Rand
aller schroffen,
winterhart-kalten
Silben.Mit ihm
wandern die Meridiane:
an-
gesogen von seinem
sonnengesteuerten Schmerz, der die Länder verbrüdert nach
dem Mittagsspruch einer
liebenden
Ferne.
The lines "Mit ihm / wandern die Meridiane" (with him / wander the merdians) is also indicative of glaciers and their nomadic tendencies. This meridian can be the medial-moraine which forms after two glaciers collide and then continue on together. This juncture, "wo sich das Irdische ballt, erdig" might be read not only as the merging of two glaciers; it is the line of demarcation between two separate entities, or the defining line between two worlds — that of the Jews' residence within the poetic snow, and that of acceptance of their tragic fate. Thus this poem defines the cold dwelling place of the Jews.
Another name of these erratische Blöcke according to Wahrig is Findling. This word occurs twice in Celan's works. In ALLERSEELEN (GW I, 183) "Die nächste, ein Herbstlicht, / dargebracht einem blinden / Gefühl, das des Wegs kam. Andere, viele, / ortlos und schwer aus sich selbst: erblickt und umgangen. / Findlinge, Sterne, / schwarz und voll Sprache: benannt" and in VOM GROSSEN (GW II, 35) "VOM GROSSEN / Augen- / losen / aus deinen Augen geschöpft: / der sechs- / kantige, absageweiße / Findling." The latter poem denotes the blind image of deity from which was created the wandering stone or Findling. The use of the stars in ALLERSEELEN and the six-sided figure in VOM GROSSEN refer to the yellow stars worn by the Jews during the Nazi occupation.
Celan combines geologic imagery with the Jewish people in his poetry. One particular instance where both the Jews and nature imagery are blended together occurs in the poem HARNISCHSTRIEMEN (GW II, 28).
HARNISCHSTRIEMEN, Faltenachsen,
Durchstich-
punkte:
dein Gelände.An beiden Polen
der Kluftrose, lesbar:
dein geächtetes Wort.
Nordwahr. Südhell.
This title is actually a composite that refers both to geologic as well as mortal scorings or markings. The term Harnisch denotes the parallel etchings or defacings left on a rock face by the passage of other rocks or glaciers. The word Striemen means geological striations in one context, but they also refer to the stripes or bruises left under the skin usually caused by blows or lashings of a whip. Together they form an image of wounding both stone and flesh. The two materials merge into one form. How both stone and flesh can be injured is reminiscent of the scarring of the gas chamber walls by the Jews. Celan was quite explicit in his translation of the film text Nacht und Nebel (Nuit et brouillard) by Jean Cayrol. Jews who were sent to their death in the concentration camps, while clamoring for release, clawed at the walls with their bare nails leaving behind similar traces of their own destruction, "Das einzige Zeichen — aber das muß man ja wissen — ist die von Fingernägeln gepflügte Decke. Beton läßt sich erweichen" (GW IV, 95). Here the hard concrete ceiling is scored like plowed rows of a field. This particular term Striemen not only applies to the geological concept of markings on rocks, but also to the etchings on the bare wall. The same idea of the bruises or marking left under the skin can be seen in a physical sense in the structure of glaciers. Often the striations of ice appear as deeper bluish lines and markings. These could possibly be pictured as veins or stripes on the physical structure of ice. These lines stand as a witness to the passing of the Jews as well as to the grinding of glaciers on bare rock.
Celan uses colors significant to the Jewish religion throughout his poetry. He owes much of his Jewish mysticism to Gershom Scholem, who transmitted most of what Celan knew of the Jewish Kabbalah. In his book Origins of the Kabbalah, Scholem explains the importance of color in Jewish mysticism. The primordial "ether" to which Scholem attributes the source of all language plays a pivotal role in understanding colors. Within this ether there is a darkness from which comes all the unexplorable "Before" of the deity and that which is before creation. "The source of darkness is regarded not, as one would have expected, as a uniform "dark," but as deriving from a mixture of green, blue, and white" (Scholem 335). These colors are not only crucial to the physical understanding of glaciers, but also to their religious understanding. These three colors figure predominantly in glacial imagery as well as in understanding mystic thought.
Celan cannot forget the importance of blue in the Jewish religion nor the blue of glacial ice. This he uses to re-establish the connection between himself, his fellow Jews, and the God of Israel. Through the imagery of the glaciers he regains this spiritual as well as temporal connection. This color shows the pure essence of ice's structure and composition. Blue also represents endurance and continuation much as the heavens created by the word of God stand for continuity and solidity. Blue becomes the pure and refined color reflecting God's presence. The deep glacial blue mirrors the blue of the heavens. In his Meridian-Rede, Celan states: "Wer auf dem Kopf geht, der hat den Himmel als Abgrund unter sich" (GW III, 195). This is the spiritual hue of God's realm found within glacial ice. Its importance is not only in relation to God's dealings with his people, the chosen ones of Israel, but also with the language he has given them. When seen in its religious context, the color green denotes hope. Some sects of the Jewish faith have brides dress in green in order to project the same hope for child bearing and fertility as is found in the plant world (Forstner 126).
In Lydia Koelle's article "Celans Jerusalem" she stresses the importance of white in connection within the Jewish belief. According to her, white symbolizes Jewish redemption from suffering, the embodiment of purity, and the creative force.
Nach jüdischer Überlieferung ist das "Weiß" von besonderer Bedeutung für Schöpfung und Erlösung: Gott kleidet sich bei der Schöpfung in ein Gewand weißen Lichts, weiß sind die Gewänder der Auferstanden, denn weiß ist nicht nur das ursprüngliche Licht, aus dem alle Farben hervorgehen, sondern auch die "Farbe volliger Reinheit". Gottes Gnade/Liebe wird durch das Weiß symbolisiert. Die weiße Farbe wird in der Kabbala der höchsten Sefira zugeordnet: beim Kabbalisten Isaak ben Jakob Kohen ist Weiß die Farbe des Erbarmens Gottes und bei Josef Gikatilla ist die höchste Sefira das "unvermischte und unveränderliche reine Weiß, das über allen Synthesen stehende "absolute Erbarmen" der Gottheit, das daher auch das Vorherrschende des Weiß im Kult des Versöhnungstages bestimmt. Am Jom kippur tragen die aschenasischen (osteuropäischen) Juden in der Synagogue das weiße Totengewand (Kittel) als Symbol der Reinheit (Koelle 293-294).
White stands as the ultimate image of purity. Koelle mentions the East European Jewish tradition of wearing white Totengewänder (death clothes) symbolizing cleanliness. Though snow represents purity, it also carries with it a spirit of death.
Celan reveals these images of purity and exoneration from suffering in DIE POLE (GW III, 105). Here he stresses the image of snow in connection with purity.
DIE POLE
sind in uns,
unübersteigbar
im Wachen,
wir schlafen hinüber, vors Tor
des Erbarmens,ich verliere dich an dich, das
ist mein Schneetrost,sag, daß Jerusalem ist,
sags, als wäre ich dieses
dein Weiß,
als wärst du
meins,als könnten wir ohne uns wir sein,
ich blättre dich auf, für immer,
du betest, du bettest
uns frei.
He voices his desire for a home free from Neo-Nazis and anti-Semitism. The snow becomes the comfort or Trost. The Weiß of the du is the exoneration from care and guilt. The verb aufblättern implies the revealing of a person, much like the opening of a book. Gone are the secrets and cares of the individual.
White closely follows the image of death outside of Celan's works. Peter Weiss explains in Die Ermittlung the function of Zyklon-B and how it killed Jews. A frightening description comes in the 10th Gesang vom Zyklon-B. When asked by the Judge how the Zyklon-B canisters' contents looked, Angeklagte 17 responds: "Es war eine körnige zerbröckelnde Masse / Man kann es schlecht sagen / Ähnlich wie Stärke / Bläulich weiß" (Weiss 171, italics added). This defendant's description conforms to Celan's own vocabulary. The "grainy mass" refers once again to the sixth section of his poem ENGFÜHRUNG while the "bluish white" pertains again to the colors found within a glacier. Again white with glacial blue conjures up images of death.
In his book Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi describes the dehumanization of the Jewish inmate. From appearance to name, all vestiges of humanity are removed from the Jew until he is reduced to nothing more than a word: "Who can tell one of our faces from the other? For them we are ‘Kazett,' a singular neuter word" (Levi 121). The words Eis and Kazett are both neuter nouns, devoid of any gender or notable characteristics. Like the Jewish inmate, glacial ice crystals are devoid of any fine edges and have been worn down to their hard, lean exterior. These grains of ice represent the prisoners in both a literal and figurative sense. Compassion and sympathy for fellow humans is nearly lost. The concentration camp exacts a hard price on the inmates. Due to their suffering they soon resemble stones and ice, devoid of all feelings and made hard and impermeable by their suffering.
Yet the Jews still retained some vestige of that divine sense and feeling for God. Although they often asked each other "Where is God now?" 9 they also tried to answer this same question with their actions, attempting to retain their decency, keeping the appearance of God within them. Celan shows this same purity within his images of stones and ice. In his poem DIE HELLEN STEINE (GW I, 255), he continues to equate the stones, in this case possibly hailstones, or large frozen ice balls, as a possible metaphor for the Jews. The light relates once again to the Strahlen that is either a physical force or the divine nature found in the poem WEGGEBEIZT.
DIE HELLEN
STEINE gehn durch die Luft, die hell-
weißen, die Licht-
bringer.Sie wollen
nicht niedergehen, nicht stürzen,
nicht treffen. Sie gehen
auf,
wie die geringen
Heckenrosen, so tun sie sich auf,
sie schweben
dir zu, du meine Leise,
du meine Wahre —:ich seh dich, du pflückst sie mit meinen
neuen, meinen
Jedermannshänden, du tust sie
ins Abermals-Helle, das niemand
zu weinen braucht noch zu nennen.
The images of these "light, bright stones" bringing light could denote water in a crystallized form, but their emanation from the sky suggests a more divine origin. Celan in the second stanza seems to hint that they do not fall entirely to the earth, nor do they hit anything on the ground: "nicht niedergehen, nicht stürzen, / nicht treffen." This preempts any harm or injury that they otherwise might have caused. The image of God is even suggested within the last few lines of the second verse. The word Wahre appears, being synonymous in Jewish thought with that of God, "sie schweben / dir zu, du meine Leise, / du meine Wahre —:" (Burger 134). The image of schweben is analogous to the Spirit of God: "Und die Erde war wüst und leer, und es war finster auf der Tiefe; und der Geist Gottes schwebte auf dem Wasser" (1. Mose 1: 2 Martin Luther translation). The last stanza suggests an end to the suffering: "du tust sie / ins Abermals-Helle, das niemand / zu weinen braucht."
This image of God within the bright stones appears once more at the end of the poem EINMAL (GW II, 107). Here he portrays his concept again of God.
EINMAL,
da hörte ich ihn,
da wusch er die Welt,
ungesehn, nachtlang,
wirklich.
Eins und Unendlich,
vernichtet,
ichten.
Licht war. Rettung.
The word wusch depicts here a cleansing or renewal. This paints an image of water being used to wash away impurities. The last line "Licht war. Rettung" can either denote God's presence or salvation by virtue of his purifying power. Much like the hellen Steine in the previous poem, this light also emanates from a divine source. In either case, the image of light becomes the author's redemption.
The crystalline structure of ice links the Jewish people inextricably to the Holocaust. The connection between the six pointed ice crystal and the six points of the Star of David is too obvious to overlook. Several times Celan uses literal images of Stern or the David Stern to refer directly back to the Jewish religion. In the poem TODESFUGE, for example, he writes: "[ . . . ] er schreibt es und tritt vor das Haus und es blitzen die Sterne / er pfeift seine Rüden herbei / er pfeift seine Juden hervor läßt schaufeln ein Grab in der Erde" (GW I, 41). The Sterne that he discusses might be read as the yellow stars of David that all Jews were required by law to wear. But he also purposely alludes to these same stars in his crystalline imagery. "Findlinge, Sterne, / schwarz und voll Sprache: benannt" (GW I, 183). The Findlinge are once again those "erratische Blöcke" left behind by a glacier. Again Celan refers to the Jewish presence in ice. In the poem VOM GROSSEN, Celan mentions the Findling and the six pointed star and crystal, "der sechs- / kantige, absageweiße / Findling. / Eine Blindenhand, sternhart auch sie / vom Namen-Durchwandern," (GW II, 35). Often he shows the Stern as rounded, another allusion back to the change from a sharp pointed crystal into a rounded crystal as is so evident within glacial ice. 10 As pressure grows within a glacier, the delicate edges of the crystal are rounded down until they interlock completely. Each Jew remained, however, unique and diverse in his/her own character much like an ice crystal's uniqueness. Not only does the glacier represent their home, but they are all components of the whole. They, too, became compacted and compressed together like glacial ice crystals by the Nazi regime into close and cramped quarters within ghettos and camps. Their edges and surfaces were rounded down by their physical and mental conditions until they became nearly devoid of emotions and feeling.
In many ways deceased Jews are an integral feature of Celan's glaciers. He places them in a cold, unfeeling environment much like that of a glacial landscape. The colors associated with glaciers are also shown to play an integral part of their religion. The Jews resemble the very structure of glacial ice — they are in many ways devoid of feeling and their senses hardened like grains of crystal ice. Yet still they retain some divine sense and, as will be shown in the next chapter, the glacier becomes an abode for them wherein they can be redeemed from their suffering.
Footnotes
9) See Elie Wiesel's Night, pages 61-62.
10) See also the following poems; ESPENBAUM (GW I, 19); ERRATISCH (GW I,
235);
HUHEBIBLU (GWI, 276); SCHLAFBROCKEN (GW II, 137); ALLMÄHLICH
CLOWNSICHTIG (GW II, 313); UNGEWASCHEN, UNBEMALT (GW II, 333).