CHAPTER VI

Literature written about Auschwitz is controversial. Theodor Adorno proposed that: "nach Auschwitz ein Gedicht zu schreiben, ist barbarisch" (Adorno 355). He argued that such a period of history should not be used for aesthetic purposes. Many have contended, however, that, "wenn wir weiterleben wollen, muß dieser Satz [von Adorno] widerlegt werden" (Buck 57). Celan attempts to do this by incorporating his past as well as the more recent history of the Jews into his lyric poetry. By doing so he perhaps hoped to come to terms with the horrors of his experiences. His references to snow and ice in connection with glaciers renews language, specifically the German language, and the Jewish people. Although Celan appears to show God's abandonment of his chosen people, the Jews, they nonetheless are given a place of residence within the figurative imagery of snow and ice. No longer is snow only a metaphor for silence, specifically the silence associated with the muting of the Jews. Rather it serves to purify and protect. The glacial image becomes the promised land, the literal frozen Palestine which Celan and the Jews can call theirs. This pessimistic environment of cold and freezing appears more positive. Silence is replaced by the Jews' eventual ability to break out of their hell and reclaim their identity and power of speech.

To understand Celan's concept of ice and snow as redemptive images, one must understand his sources of inspiration. Dante's Divine Comedy strongly influenced Celan's imagery. The Inferno was especially critical in shaping his views on suffering and redemption (Buck 132). Several other post-Holocaust authors refer to this Italian work. Peter Weiss based his drama Die Ermittlung on the same underlying principle as Dante with 11 Gesänge or Cantos each divided into three sections making it 33 parts in all. Weiss also illustrates the Jews' descent down into a terrestrial or sub-terrestrial hell until his Inferno becomes the ovens of the crematorium. He even presents his own Beatrice in the form of Lili Tofler. 11 Primo Levi often quotes Dante as he equates that particular poetry with his experience in Auschwitz (Levi 112-115). Dante depicts hell with several images of snow, ice, sleet, and cold. In the 6th Canto the author traverses a region where a freezing rain accompanies an indescribably noxious odor. As Dante descends further down towards hell, this stench and pouring sleet are replaced by cold temperatures. In the 32nd Canto he enters the lowest region of hell where all who negated the warmth of God in their earthly life are condemned to remain encased within solid ice. For many Holocaust writers, cold was a common theme to describe their internment in extermination camps. It is only natural that many would equate these places with cold and hell. The cold they experienced, which oftentimes brought death, also mirrored the attitudes of their overseers and German officers.

Celan uses these images of ice in his poetry to depict not only a hell where souls suffer, but also a purgatory that redeems and purifies the souls that enter. Rather than an entirely negative image, he creates one that proffers some measure of hope. Langer explains how literary journeys beyond the grave are usually positive in their outcome. "The traditional descents to the underworld recorded in the epic poets and Dante always culminated in a return to the living characterized by a spiritual strengthening, a celebration of the future, perhaps a temporary nostalgia (in some instances) for the departed, but never a permanent mood of despair" (Langer 59). The ice renews the beings within both physically and spiritually.

Celan's icy imagery operates in a redemptive manner. Within the context of the Holocaust the Jewish people descend into a literal hell, or as Dante envisions it, a frozen wasteland. While becoming part of the ice themselves, it frees them from their sufferings. Images of heat and melting contribute to this optimism. Once the ice melts, they break free of the bonds that keep them dumb. The silent snow melts away and the Jews regain their voices — voices silenced by the Holocaust.

For Celan, the glacier stands as a physical monument to the memory of the Jews. Pöggeler defines the image of the glacier. He also envisions this massive ice structure as a Jewish realm where their dead may go: "Wird der Schnee schon früh zur Todesallegorie, so kann der Gletscher [ . . ] für den Bereich der Toten stehen" (Symbol und Allegorie 354-355). 12 Glaciers stand as a memorial to the Jews and their suffering. In his mind they are still present; their trials and hardships throughout their thousands of years of history are still actual. ". . . so sind auch für Celan die Toten nicht einfach tot" (356). To Celan, they are very real. They attain physicality in much the same way snow accumulates and grows until it either forms into ice or becomes a glacier. Their collected experiences are also physically real. Celan captures this tangible essence in the form of snow and glaciers.

Another way in which Celan captures the dead is in analogy. Common glacial formations are ice moraines. Moraines are deposits of earth and gravel left over from glacial melting or ablation. When a glacier remains stationary for several years, a large, moraine-like deposit sometimes develops, which, instead of an earthen deposit, consists of a thick core of glacial ice overlaid with a relatively thin layer of soil. This earthen insulation prevents the core from melting. This occurrence parallels the mass extermination of Jews, when many were placed in shallow graves after being shot, covered by only a thin layer of dirt. The Jews are again represented by the glacial ice, their bodies preserved as reminders of their death.

Redemptive Images Housed in Snow

In the poem WEGGEBEIZT (GW II, 31), Celan captures images of repentant figures within ice. Much like he finds language within snow and ice, here he shows images of people also trapped in snow. These figures can perhaps be seen as those suffering Jews encased in a cold environment or icy hell. The word Büßerschnee is a technical term describing a certain type of glacial snow, yet it also captures a religious aspect of Celan's multivalent word usage. The glacier becomes a religious dwelling with rooms and chambers. It is here that he locates Jewish identity.

Aus-
gewirbelt,
frei
der Weg durch den menschen-
gestaltigen Schnee,
den Büßerschnee, zu
den gastlichen
Gletscherstuben und -tischen.

Wahrig defines the word Büßerschnee as "Schmelzform der Schneedecke, bei der kegelförmige Zacken entstehen, die wie in weiße Kutten gekleidete Gestalten aussehen." These figures are reminiscent of pilgrims bent over in a humble attitude and occur often in snow, ice, and glacial ice in the tropical high altitude regions. Again the color white, reminiscent of death, appears with both snow and human imagery.

Here Celan uses technical terms from glaciology to portray the glacier as a type of residence. He cites images of both Stuben and Tischen. In this poem, as in many others, words appear which denote images of articles found within a house.13 A word such as gastlichen in connection with rooms and furniture helps to make the glacier more hospitable for Jews. It denotes feelings of residence and even an invitation to remain. In order for there to be a Gast there must also be a Gastgeber. This implies that there exists or existed a relationship between the guests and the host (Buhr 39).

Another possible reason for the glacial house is its analogous relation to the House of Israel. The glacier becomes a residence for all descendants of the twelve Jewish tribes. Again a house, as shown in the poem MIT WECHSELNDEM SCHLÜSSEL (GW I, 112), shows the residence of the Jews. It is here that they, who belong to the "the snow of what has been muted," live. Celan compares them to the snow, citing their muted nature: "Mit wechselndem Schlüssel / schließt du das Haus auf, darin / der Schnee des Verschwiegenen treibt."

Celan sets the precedent in his Atemwende volume for generating that same feeling of residence using snow and ice imagery as metaphors. The first two lines of his first poem, DU DARFST (GW II, 11) show this same feeling of domicility.

DU DARFST mich getrost
mit Schnee bewirten:
sooft ich Schulter an Schulter
mit dem Maulbeerbaum schritt durch den Sommer,
schrie sein jüngstes
Blatt.

The image of the Maulbeerbaum with the leaves in summer further strengthens the image of warmth together with snow. The image of the crying leaf also supports this idea of a dwelling place. Amy Colin remarks on Celan's tendency to view his poetry as a dwelling place (Colin 137-138). She cites the poem IN DER LUFT (GW I, 290-291) as a prime example of an abode amidst the "winterhart-kalten Silben."

IN DER LUFT, da bleibt deine Wurzel, da,
in der Luft.
Wo sich das Irdische ballt, erdig,
Atem-und-Lehm.

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.

Colin cites the parallels between Celan's conception of a "poetic dwelling" and that of Hegel's harmonious poetic space, in which "the truly epic poet . . . remains entirely at home in his world." She stresses, however, that Celan's poetry conveys a dwelling place of "dissonance and horror" (Colin 137). This is based on the supposition that snow resembles silence and death. It conveys the idea of "a man who realized that he waited for God's word in vain" (Colin 138). As pointed out previously, this icy dwelling can be viewed as a place of respite from the theological tensions and divisions among the Jews. It is here that Celan gathers the Jews from the Diaspora, or from their scattering after the Babylonian Captivity. They await the promise of a Messiah whom they feel has already deserted them. Colin correctly recognizes the snow as a dwelling place, but when placed in the context of snow as a redemptive image, the literary glacier becomes a place of comfort.

The Glacial Homeland

Glacial images in Celan's poems sometimes become a promised land. He promises even more from the metaphors snow and ice. In the poem DIE ZWISCHENEIN- (GW II, 143) he shows the fulfillment of God's promises to Old Testament prophets. In the last stanza there are images of Jews or Vollwüchsigen being carried to their "unerring" fate. The direction which the glacial runoff carries them is away from the protective inner recesses of the glacier: "die Gletschermilch karrt / die Vollwüchsigen durch / das schwimmende Ziel / ihrer unbeirrbaren / Brände." Similar to the poem WEGGEBEIZT, DIE ZWISCHENEIN- depicts images of individuals struggling back through the snow in an effort to achieve a homeland and thus avoid death by fire. To be carried outside of this glacier is to suffer the same fate that befell so many Jews. In these two poems Celan purposely uses the words Gletschermilch and Wabeneis. Together the glacial milk and the alveolar ice generate images of both milk and honey. For Celan, the glacier becomes the promised land full of hope and respite. The Wabeneis reminds the reader of a utopia, "wo Milch und Honig fließt" (Janz 202). The images that he here offers seem particularly optimistic.

Many of these cold images are infused with feelings of warmth and heat. A sense of renewal or redemption stems from these icy, cold poems which causes one to think he has at last found some hope with his Jewish identity. The word gastlichen suggests the presence not only of warmth but also of comfort. Glacial images generating heat appears problematic. Celan, however, allows the literary warmth associated with these words as well as literal heat to play off each other within the glacier. This is accomplished in a very technical sense. Due to its enormous mass and weight, a glacier can sometimes produce its own heat, causing ice to melt at temperatures below O°C under thick sheets of ice. Glaciologists term this phenomenon "pressure melting."14 This heat becomes a force that makes the glacier "plastic," allowing it freedom of movement and slippage (Andrews 116). When seen contextually, this same movement allows for "play" in the language and for multiple interpretation of a single concept or phrase, thereby allowing the words to generate their own heat within the glacier and making it a more hospitable environment. An isothermal reaction at the glacial base would support the feeling of Häuslichkeit or coziness generated by the words gastlichen and Stuben.

Celan drew many of his technical facts from the writings of others. He underlined passages in Jean Paul's works that related to the similarities between snow and warmth. In Die unsichtbare Loge he found literary parallels that related to snow and ice which also had religious overtones. These writings heavily influenced his volumes Atemwende and Schneepart. One such quote in Jean Paul's writings that pertains to the heating of ice he underlined: "So sucht sich der Mensch unter dem kalten Schnee der Gegenwart zu erwärmen oder sich aus ihm einen schönen Schneemann zu kneten" (Gellhaus 45). It is here, under the "snow of the present" or freshly fallen snow, that warmth arises. Snow appears to have its own intrinsic warmth separate from its natural properties.

Jewish Purification through Snow

Within the glacier, the Jewish dead are absolved of their suffering and pain. The means by which this purifying process is accomplished occurs in the poem ENGFÜHRUNG (GW I, 195-204). This poem's importance lies in its overall structure and not only in certain words. Paul Celan personally told Peter Szondi and Marlies Janz, among others, that this poem relates to Dante's Divine Comedy.15 According to Joel Golb, the entire poem is fashioned after Dante's Inferno ("Reading Celan," Golb 198). The direct citation "An diesem Tage lasen wir nicht weiter" is extracted nearly verbatim from the Inferno episode.16 Celan's own private life is reflected within this poem, as the ice functions in a reflective quality.17 In the poem ENGFÜHRUNG there are nine distinct sections that relate to the nine levels of hell into which Dante's poet descends. In the sixth section Celan details the crystallizing of countless human souls (Golb 210). The Jews become literal ice crystals and therefore integral elements within the glacier. Here also the word Gast appears in connection with stone or crystalline ice images.

Ja.
Orkane, Par-
tikelgestöber, es blieb
Zeit, blieb,
es beim Stein zu versuchen — er
war gastlich, er
fiel nicht ins Wort. Wie
gut wir es hatten:

Körnig,
körnig und faserig. Stengelig,
dicht;
traubig und strahlig; nierig,
plattig und
klumpig; locker, ver-
ästelt —: er, es
fiel nicht ins Wort, es
sprach,
sprach gerne zu trockenen Augen, eh es sie schloß.

Sprach, sprach.
War, war.

Wir
ließen nicht locker, standen
inmitten, ein
Porenbau, und
es kam.

Kam auf uns zu, kam
hindurch, flickte
unsichtbar, flickte
an der letzten Membran,
und
die Welt, ein Tausendkristall,
schoß an, schoß an.

Celan uses organic and inorganic images in this poem. Many of the words he uses are found in both mineral and biological terminology (Behl 80). The words "Schoß an, schoß an" denote the almost organic growth of crystals. They experience a parallel form of biological growth when triggered by a catalyst (Janz 85). The importance of both organic and inorganic growth is not necessarily restricted in their relationship to each other. Their development alludes to an even higher concept. Pöggeler states that these forms of chemical growth indicate something beyond their simple material form. They refer to almost human concepts. Celan captures in these images semblences of mortal and divine beings. "Alles Organische und Anorganische wird bei Celan zum Menschlichen und Mehr-als-Menschlichen hingeführt . . ." (Pöggeler 156). This "Mehr-als-Menschlichen" idea could possibly lead to the Jewish people's redemption from suffering.

This shift from suffering to redemption is again reflected in Celan's literary images. The transitory state of water, from liquid to solid, is a recurring motif that suggests not only God's abandonment of the Jews but also his continued persistence and presence in their ideology, despite his absence. The melting symbolizes the release of the Jews from confinement, while the freezing denotes their mental or physical state of captivity. The images of water and its resurgent change of state permeates the vocabulary of the Nazis. Even the very term the Nazis used in connection with the eradication of the Jews is based upon water. The definition of Liquidierung or liquidation is more commonly seen in relation to water, transforming a solid substance into a fluid. Wahrig defines this word as being both, "flüssig werden oder schmelzen" and "töten, hinrichten, oder umbringen lassen."

Religious Breath in Ice

Trapped within these ice crystals is the Atemkristall found in Weggebeizt. This is an important image in the religious/ice metaphors used by Celan. He considered it important enough that when he first released his volume Atemwende he titled it Atemkristall. In this poem the crystal symbolizes the captive breath trapped within the glacier.

Tief
in der Zeitenschrunde,
beim
Wabeneis
wartet, ein Atemkristall
, dein unumstößliches
Zeugnis.

Following Pöggeler's observation that the glacier is the region of the dead, the Atemkristall is the last true testimony of the Jews' religion (Pöggeler 354-355). It is immovable in its testimony because it was sealed with their deaths. The entire region within the glacier becomes gastlich due to the Jews' presence and testimony. The word Atem represents the culmative effect of this poem and its potential. He calls it in other poems "Wahrheit" (GW II, 89) or "Wahre" (GW I, 258). These words hold special significance for the Jews since they are taboo and too closely associated with the name of God (Burger 134).

The importance attached to the word Wahre is also applicable to the word Atem, which is nearly synonymous in the Hebrew language with Hauch or breath of God. It can either be the creative force in bringing forth life or is the spirit within a person. In the Hebrew it is called Ruach, which signifies not only "breath," "wind" and "spirit," but also "soul," "that spark of divinity in the creature that ties him to his Creator" (Rosenfeld 86). The Old Testament identifies God as the provider of the breath of life,18 and Celan further stresses this by capturing life within the glacier. In this frozen realm, spirits and creative forces exist simultaneously. The glacier continues to function as a renewing force for both the religious aspect of his poetry as well as the linguistical presence of a renewed language.

Celan uses ice imagery to purify the Jewish dead while they are locked within the ice. All impurities are driven out of the crystals and themselves. It is in the glacier that ice removes the torment and suffering of the Holocaust. Certain images of warmth suggest redemption for the Jews within the snow and ice. In EIS, EDEN (GW I, 224), the word glühen melts the land, "das mit uns erfroren." In conclusion the ice again arises or is even reborn: "Das Eis wird auferstehen:"

EIS, EDEN

Es ist ein Land Verloren,
da wächst ein Mond im Ried,
und das mit uns erfroren,
es glüht umher und sieht.

Es sieht, denn es hat Augen,
die helle Erden sind.
Die Nacht, die Nacht, die Laugen.
Es sieht, das Augenkind.

Es sieht, es sieht, wir sehen,
ich sehe dich, du siehst.
Das Eis wird auferstehen,
eh sich die Stunde schließt.

This is one of Celan's few poems that actually rhymes. The rhythmic tonality suggests an even more optimistic view of ice. The word Edenhas reference to the former paradise lost to the Jews. Now locked within the ice, there is a potential for redemption. "Das Eis wird auferstehen." The resurrection mentioned in connection with the ice relates to the releasing of the Jews from their icy stronghold, "und das mit uns erfroren, / es glüht umher und sieht."

Images of melting and releasing occur throughout Celan's works. The release from the ice appears to be a new opportunity for the Jews to take their fate back into their own hands. Rather than be subject to the will of others, the melting gives them freedom. "Abend, der über mir aufglomm, als ich aufriß das Tor / und durchwintert vom Eis meiner Schläfen / durch die Weiler der Ewigkeit sprengt" (GW I, 67); "WO EIS IST / WO EIS IST, ist Kühle für zwei. / Für zwei: so ließ ich dich kommen. / Ein Hauch wie von Feuer war um dich — " (GW I, 96); "den Flüssen folgend in die ab- / schmelzende Eis- / heimat," (GW II, 235). The freedom denoted by this melting relates more to their release from the suffering incurred by the Holocaust. The freedom that they gain is a possible redemption from their suffering.

Celan places an important poem which deals with snow and icy depths shortly after WEGGEBEIZT. It is entitled KEINE SANDKUNST MEHR (GW II, 39).

KEINE SANDKUNST MEHR, kein Sandbuch, keine Meister.

Nichts erwürfelt. Wieviel
Stumme?

Siebenzehn.
Deine Frage — deine Antwort.
Dein Gesang, was weiß er?
Tiefimschnee,
Iefimnee,
I — i — e.

The last stanza answers the question posed by the two previous lines concerning the muting of Jewish voices. In these last three lines Celan reduces the consonants of the composite word "Tief im Schnee." He removes the "t" and "sch" hard consonantal sounds. In the third line, all consonants are gone, along with some superfluous vowels. All that remains are three vowels, each representative of one of the three words. Looking deeply into the snow and comparing snow and ice again to the Jewish people, he reduces Jewishness or the voices of the Jews to its basic elements. These vowels represent the elementary forms of religion and identity. Vowels are the basic sounds in all languages and are placed around consonants to form words. They are the building blocks of language. In Hebrew vowels are usually not written, represented only by dots that appear either under or within the consonant character. Vowels are usually inserted only in sacred writings. These necessary, yet nearly unseen elements, represent the Jews as well. Their divine language defines them as the chosen people of God. "Jewish tradition has always integrally linked the Hebrew language and the People of Israel" (Aphek 61).

These particular vowels, i and e, are also pronounced quite high in the mouth. In this way they are elevated to a higher physical state as well. Without the physical encumbrances of the consonants surrounding the vowels, the pure form of the sentence, much like the pure state of the people, can emerge. Again Celan not only makes the language more pure by reducing it to a simple uncorrupted form, but he takes language to a new level by bringing his own religion and identity to this same renewed state.

In Celan's own life, his search for a homeland led him at last to Israel. Only there did he feel he had finally returned home. The redemptive quality of snow and ice is reflected in his own life as he, too, finds a physical manifestation of a homeland. His writings provided the catharsis by which he attempted to redeem himself from suffering. He too, like the images in the snow, descended into a literal hell and emerged to find a home, and therefore, freedom. In contrast to the negative and silent image of snow, snow here provides a means of renewal, its purity a metaphor for his own spiritual renewal. This view of ice and snow as positive elements is a new approach to understanding Celan. Unlike contemporary views that Celan's works speak of despair and hopelessness, a new attitude can be taken towards his work. Though he is a survivor of the Holocaust, one need not consider his poems devoid of any spiritual or physical redemption.

By understanding Celan's glacial imagery and his reasoning behind the use of ice and snow, his poetry becomes more optimistic. No longer are his poems pessimistic reflections on death incurred by the Holocaust. Rather, he infuses new life into the German language and purges himself of suffering. Snow and ice are positive elements that he shapes into redemptive literary images. The glacier stands as the culminating point of both language and religion wherein both can be purified and renewed.

Footnotes

11) Special thanks to James Lyon for bringing this to my attention.
12) See also Edith Silbermann's Begegnung with Paul Celan (7)
13) Celan uses many other images that are representative of items found within and without a home such as Krug, Tisch, Flaschen, Fenster, Dach, Kammer, Wohngänge, Tür, Bett, Stube, and Haus.
14) Glacies have been known to generate what are termed "snow swamps" where the pressure causes liquification of the snow almost in defiance of the surrounding cold. Studies show that places such as the Antarctic Ice Sheet are so think that the normal gradient temperature increases with depth. Liquid water entered at the base of a hole bored through 2,164 meters of ice at Byrd Station. (Brittanica 740).
15) See Szondi, Peter, page 78; Janz Marlies, pages 82, 223, and notes on page 98.
16) "quel giorno più non vi leggemno avante [ . . . ]" (Inferno Canto V, V. 138)
17) Another instance where Celan mirrors Dante's poetry with that of his own life is found in the "Lancelot (Anschel>Ancel>Celan)-Lektüre von Paulo (Paul) and Francesca (Französin) auf die Liebesbeziehung zwischen ihm und Gisèle, seine "Französische Frau" (Janz 223).
18) See Genesis 2:7, Genesis 7:22, Job 7:7, Job 12:10 and Job 33:4.