Making of “I” with “You”.
Celan’s poetry and Gadamer’s hermeneutics
The importance of Paul Celan’s lyrics to hermeneutic philosophy is concisely emphasized by a short essay of Hans-Georg Gadamer (afterwards turned into a book), that was written shortly after the poet’s death.
Who Am I and Who Are You?, by rotation of emitent/receptor stances, seems to acknowledge Gadamer’s concept of fusion of horizons that is the fundament of his hermeneutics.
Keywords: Celan, Gadamer, hermetic poetry, hermeneutics, dialogue, fusion of horizons
1. According to my interpretation in Reactualizarea sensului. Paul Celan şi avangardismul românesc, Pontica, 2007.
2. As translated by Pierre Joris, in Paul Celan, Breathturn. Los Angeles: Sun and Moon, 1995.
3. For stylistic reasons I turned to my own translation of Gadamer’s texts. In comparison, there is available a translation by Richard Heinemann and Bruce Krajewski, in Who Am I and Who Are You? and Other Essays, State University of New York Press, 1997.
4. Translated and interpreted by myself in Reactualizarea sensului. Paul Celan şi avangardismul românesc, Pontica, 2007.
5. Translation by Pierre Joris, in Paul Celan – Selections, University of California Press, 2005.
6. Otto Pöggeller – Lyrik als Sprache unserer Zeit? Paul Celans Gedichtbände, 1998.
7. Paul Celan, Selected Poems and Prose. Translated by John Felstiner; W.W. Norton, 2001.
8. In translation by J. Felstiner
