The One and Only Circle: Paul Celan's Letters to Gisele

Introduction and Translation from the French by John Felstiner

#5 / 7 October 1952 / Paris, 10 a.m. —Paul Celan to Gisèle Celan-Lestrange:

Maia, my love, I wish I could tell you how much I want all this to stay, stay for us, stay for ever.

You see, in coming toward you I feel I'm leaving a world behind, hearing doors bang shut behind me, door after door, for they're so many, the doors in this world made of misunderstandings, false clarities, scoffings. Maybe there are still more doors for me, maybe I haven't yet gone back over the whole ground with its networks of misleading signs—but I'm coming, you know I'm coming close, the rhythm—I feel it—speeds up, one phantasm after another flickers out, the lying mouths shut down on their slime—no more words, no more noise, nothing more dogging my step—

I'll be there next to you in an instant, in a second that inaugurates time.

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