With a Changing Key (by Paul Celan)
With a Changing Key (by Paul Celan)
Original Text
Paul Celan, Glottal Stop: 101 Poems by Paul Celan, trans. Nikolai Popov and Heather McHugh (Hanover: University Press of New England, 2000).
This
poem is reproduced on the Griffin Prize Web Site (from the winning volume on the 2001 International Shortlist).
1With a changing key
2you unlock the house where
3the snow of what’s silenced drifts.
4Just like the blood that bursts from
5your eye or mouth or ear,
6so your key changes.
7Changing your key changes the word
8that may drift with the flakes.
9Just like the wind that rebuffs you,
10packed round your word is the snow.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011