Celan

"Celan reflected on his experiences as a Holocaust victim, saying, 'Only one thing remained reachable, close and secure among all losses: language. Yes, language, in spite of everything, it remained secure against loss.'" -Hilton Als, The New Yorker

O Little Root of a Dream by Paul Celan

O little root of a dream
you hold me here
undermined by blood,
no longer visible to anyone,
property of death.

Curve a face
that there may be speech, of earth,
of ardor, of
things with eyes, even
here, where you read me blind,

even
here,
where you
refute me,
to the letter.