Morning Translation: 12 July 2025, Paul Celan, "An eye, open"

Hours, may-colored, cool.

That which can no longer be named, hot,

can be heard in the mouth.

No one's voice, again.

An eyeball's depth, that aches:

the lid

doesn't block, the lash

doesn't count what comes in. 

The tear, half, 

the sharper lens, spry,

goes and gets the pictures for you.

+

Ein Auge, offen

Stunden, maifarben, kühl.

Das nicht mehr zu Nennende, heiß, 

hörbar im Mund. 

Niemandes Stimme, wieder.

Schmerzende Augapfeltiefe: 

das Lid

steht nicht im Wege, die Wimper

zählt nicht, was eintritt.

Die Träne, halb,

die schärfste Linse, beweglich,

holt dir die Bilder.

Notes: several instances of polysemy are unfortunately lost in the translation.

1.) In the second line of the first stanza, “heiß” or “hot” in the German is just one letter away from “heißt” or “is called”, literalizing the inability to name that is indicated in the first part of the line. But the Unable-to-be-named is still a way of, if not explicitly naming, than at least indicating an absence, which is then vocalized, audible in the hollow cavity of the mouth, a voice not belonging to anyone and addressing no-one.

2.) Line four of stanza two has a great albeit oblique pun on “paying admission”. Prima facie, the stanza communicates that neither eyelid or eyelash stand in the way or count (“zählt”) what goes into (“eintritt”) the eye. In addition to counting, the verb “zähl(en)” in German can also mean “to pay”. Furthermore, while “eintritt” appears here as the present tense of the verb “eintreten”, it is also analogous to the noun-form “Eintritt”, or “admission [fee]”. It’s as if the lid and lash are bouncers or ticket agents at the entrance of the eye but are asleep (or awake?) on the job.

3.) In a colloquial context, “beweglich” translates to “flexible”, “moveable”, “mobile”, etc. However, this is also the appropriate German term in a clinical context to describe the motility of the eye (e.g. “frei beweglich”). I could see this poem as a relatively straightforward account of a visit to the ophthalmologist, although one perhaps involving a moderate dose of chloroform.