About this item

Paul Celan, one of the greatest German-language poets of the twentieth century, created an oeuvre that stands as testimony to the horrors of his times and as an attempt to chart a topography for a new, uncontaminated language and world. Breathturn into Timestead The Collected Later Poetry gathers the five final volumes of his lifes work in a bilingual edition, translated and with commentary by the award-winning poet and translator Pierre Joris. This collection displays a mature writer at the height of his talents, following what Celan himself called the turn Wende of his work away from the lush, surreal metaphors of his earlier verse. Given the sinister events in its memory, Celan believed that the language of poetry had to become more sober, more factual .



About the Author

Pierre Joris

Pierre Joris, while raised in Luxembourg, has moved between Europe, the US & North Africa for over half a century now, publishing more than 70 books of poetry, essays, translations & anthologies -- most recently published A City Full of Voices: Essays on the Work of Robert Kelly (co-edited with Peter Cockelbergh & Joel Newberger, Contra Mundum Press) , Arabia (not so) Deserta (Essays, Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2019) ; Conversations in the Pyrenees with Adonis (CMP 2018) , and The Book of U (poems, with Nicole Peyrafitte, Editions Simoncini) . Forthcoming later in 2020 are: Microliths: Posthumous Prose of Paul Celan (CMP) , Memory Rose into Threshold Speech: The Collected Earlier Poetry of Paul Celan (FSG) & Fox-trails, -tales & -trots (poems & proses) from Black Fountain Press. Other recent books include a translation of Egyptian poet Safaa Fathy's Revolution Goes Through Walls (SplitLevel) ; The University of California Book of North African Literature (volume 4 in the Poems for the Millennium series, coedited with Habib Tengour, 2012) ; Bernat Manciet: Ode to James Dean (translated by PJ & Nicole Peyrafitte) from mindmade books (L.A.) , Meditations on the Stations of Mansur al-Hallaj (poems) from Chax Press and Exile is My Trade: A Habib Tengour Reader edited & translated by Joris. Pierre Joris: Cartographies of the In-between, essays on Joris' work edited by Peter Cockelbergh, came out in 2012, with essays on Joris' work by, among others, Mohamed Bennis, Charles Bernstein, Nicole Brossard, Clayton Eshleman, Allen Fisher, Christine Hume, Robert Kelly, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Jennifer Moxley, Jean Portante, Carrie Noland, Alice Notley, Marjorie Perloff & Nicole Peyrafitte (Litteraria Pragensia, Charles University, Prague, 2011) . His The Meridian: Final Version--Drafts--Materials by Paul Celan (Stanford U.P. 2011) was awarded the 2013 MLA Aldo & Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Scholarly Study of Literature) . With Jerome Rothenberg he edited Poems for the Millennium, vol. 1 & 2: The University of California Book of Modern & Postmodern Poetry. Other recent books include The Meridian: Final Version--Drafts--Materials by Paul Celan (Stanford U.P. 2011) , Canto Diurno #4: The Tang Extending from the Blade, (poems, 2010) , Justifying the Margins: Essays 1990-2006 (Salt Books) , Aljibar I & II (poems) & the CD Routes, not Roots (with Munir Beken, oud; Mike Bisio, bass; Ben Chadabe, percussion; Mitch Elrod, guitar; Ta'wil Productions) . Further translations include Paul Celan: Selections (UC Press) & Lightduress by Paul Celan which received the 2005 PEN Poetry Translation Award. With Jerome Rothenberg he edited Poems for the Millennium, vol. 1 & 2: The University of California Book of Modern & Postmodern Poetry. When not traveling for readings & performances, he lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn with his wife, multimedia praticienne Nicole Peyrafitte Check out his Nomadics Blog (http://pierrejoris.com/blog) .



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