Some notes on Paul Celan's last days

Some notes on Paul Celan's last days

John Bjarne Grover

Some years ago the story of Paul Celan's last day 19-20 april 1970 was that he went from his home in 6 Avenue Emile Zola down to the Seine at Pont Mirabeau where he was believed to have been suiciding by slipping into the water for drowning himself. Now I see that an updated version has emerged, here in the Wikipedia article on Paul Celan:

"Celan drowned in the river Seine in Paris around 20 April 1970. It may have been suicide, and if so, perhaps related to the appearance of Weissglas's poem, dated 1944, in the Romanian journal Neue Literatur, and fears that he might again be accused unfairly of plagiarism, the initial assertions about which, in 1953, later occasioned four psychotic episodes involving paranoia".

I found a related account in Bertrand Badiou's "Paul Celan - eine Bildbiographie", Suhrkamp 2023. The story seems to be that Celan was a friend or at least acquaintance of Immanuel Weissglas - they were schoolmates in the schooldays in Czernowitz: They were both born in 1920. Both of them seem to have moved to Bukarest in 1945 (here about Weissglas - but it is seemingly not known if they met each other there). Immanuel Weissglas' poem 'Er' was printed (apparently the first print of it) in the periodical 'Neue Literatur' in february 1970 in Bukarest. It is there dated 1944 - while Celan's 'Todesfuge' (possibly his best known poem) is from 1945. The story is that the two poems are very similar on a few points - and this must have been the background of the mention of Weissglas in the Wikipedia article.

Here is Immanuel Weissglass' poem 'Er' (1944) - here are the relevant lines excerpted:

ER spielt im Haus mit Schlangen, dräut und dichtet,
In Deutschland dämmert es wie Gretchens Haar.
Das Grab in Wolken wird nicht eng gerichtet:
Da weit der Tod ein deutscher Meister war.

And here is Paul Celan 'Todesfuge' (1945) - here the relevant lines excerpted:

Ein Mann wohnt im Haus der spielt mit den Schlangen der schreibt
der schreibt wenn es dunkelt nach Deutschland
dein goldenes Haar Margarete
Dein aschenes Haar Sulamith

wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Lüften da liegt man nicht eng

Er ruft stecht tiefer ins Erdreich ihr einen ihr andern singet und spielt

[...7 lines...]

Er ruft spielt süßer den Tod der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland

The similarity of Celan's lines from 1945 with Weissglas's lines allegedly from 1944 is obvious. Unless this be a case of trivial swindle by antedating of the poem, the explanation is probably not so difficult: If Adolf Hitler's name since 1969 could have been 'John Grøver', this could have been an old plan (contained even in a concept of a 'zweite Reich'?) and it is possible that Celan in 1944-45 would have sensed this as a diffuse threat very clearly in his life. In particular if Celan was pre-selected to be the genetic father of the official son (me) of possibly Adolf Hitler or at least 'John Grøver': Such ideas of genetic fatherhood would then have been mythologically cast as a 'plagiarism' of 'John Grøver's alleged creation - and it would have been this name ('John Grøver') which found an echo in the names of his old friend 'Immanuel Weissglass' and also of 'Yvan Goll'. The lines in Celan's 'Todesfuge' that echo Weissglas' poem 'Er' could therefore probably very precisely do so (however subconscious) for this reason - as a diffuse threat it would have been about - at the end of the war. Weissglas' poem from 1944 was printed in 'Neue Literatur' in february 1970 - it is apparently not known if Celan read this before his death in april. It would not have been the threat of being revealed as a mere copyist instead of the great poet - rather it would have been the threat of a Hitler's 'Reich' arising again - and with particular relevance for his own person. The literary effect would have been that he already in 1945 had understood that Hitler could come to emerge again - could be even the feelingn of a wolf behind the 'granny' facade of a 'Weissglas'-similar name such as 'John-Grøver'.

It would probably have been difficult to understand the phenomenon unless ideas like these can surface: At least the ideas seem to be relevant, and so they may have been for Celan as well, however unpronounced they could have been in 1945.

However, on basis of limited data - it is apparently not known if Celan could have read Weissglas' poem before he wrote his own.

Had they met (on basis of shared schooldays) in e.g. Bukarest in 1945 and exchanged poetry? Or had they shared enough name-relevant experiences in the schooldays for such a precise co-indexation of them? It is noted that Celan's 'Todesfuge' was published in rumanian translation in Bukarest on 2 may 1947 (Celan 2003 p.607) while the earliest known dating of Weissglas' 'Er' is 20 july 1947 (Wiedemann 2000 p.844-845) - on a folder which contained also the otherwise undated poem. It is therefore also possible that 'plagiarism' could have been the other way round - that Weissglas had read Celan's poem printed in Bukarest in may and had written his own poem some time thereafter. But it is also well possible that Celan had been exposed somehow to Weissglas' poem before he wrote his own and because of a potential political intrigue involving Hitler relative to his own person had felt the diffuse pressure of history through Weissglas' poem and therefore let the threats of history through in that form.

Whatever the reason, it is well possible that the relation between the two poems had been known since rather early. The Grøvers had - probably in Molde in the second half of the 1960's - acquired Liv Glaser's recording of some of Edvard Grieg's 'Lyrical pieces' - an LP called (as far as I remember) Edvard Grieg 'Lyriske stykker' - I think it may have been this photo of Grieg on the cover - source is this youtube.com entry - I dont know why it is called 'Lyrical Travels' in this new release and it may have been another collection in the 1960's, but it was that sort of piano pieces by Grieg. Since 'Liv' = 'Life' there is a certain 'Life Glaser' resembling a 'Weiss Glaser' - for a further 'John Grøver'. I think perhaps the record could have been a gift to my elder sister's birthday, or something like that.

However that be, it is noticed that this 'Liv Glaser' record could in principle have been a part of a possible background when Weissglas' poem was published in the rumanian periodical in february 1970.

My guess is that if Celan's death in april 1970 had been known in advance, which also could have meant that he could have been murdered before he was dumped in the Seine, the appearance of Weissglas' poem in the periodical in february 1970 could in principle have been a part of an organized intrigue (even if the poem could have been old enough).

Could 'general poetic constraints' have converged the two poems towards each other? I refer to my comparison in this file of the relation between my own poem TEQ #2 'Shut up the dramatis personæ' (here called 'Potatoes'), written in 1997, and Celan's 'Und mit dem Buch aus Tarussa', written 20 september 1962. I had not read Celan's poem when I wrote mine.

A peculiarity - possibly on 'Liv Glaser': In the 1990's I read A.C.Grayling's 'An introduction to philosophical logic' (London 1990) and notice now on page 93 a reference to a book by a 'Linsky': "Reference and modality" (1971) with the comment (in Grayling's book):

"The papers in the Linsky volume (op.cit), particularly those by Marcus, Smullyan, Føllesdal and Kaplan represent the core of the debate over Quine's objections. The net result of their replies to Quine is that his attitude to quantifying into modal contexts is over-anxious".

'Over-anxious' - could that be for some sort of 'John Grøver'? I notice that an abbreviation of Marcus, Smullyan, Føllesdal, Kaplan could give 'mars muf øl-kap' = 'a flying saucer like a beer-bottle cap' - that is what happened after I in the late 1960's with a finger sent ('knipset' = 'flicked'?) such a bottlecap from the top of the refridgerator through the air of the room - it hit the then father (I dont remember the exact year) on the other side of the kitchen on the eyebrow and the story may have been used about the trip (with airplane, a sort of 'flying saucer') to London in 1972. (The hit with the bottle-cap was not intended and of course I believed that the cap would fall to the floor after a metre or two - but the 'magic bottlecap' must even have risen paradoxically through the air after having taken off from the flat fridgetop surface of maybe a metre's height). Here it could be about 'Linsky' and 'Qui'? Who travelled really? "Koselig, han leste/lesset av plan". "Sykehuselig annen lesset a planene". "Sykehuselig annen..." cp. "Suu Kyi Aung San"?

In the Fatima revelations of 1917, the Madonna said to the young visionary Lucia: 'Rusia must turn around, otherwise she will spread her errors all over the world'. The Madonna was standing on a holm-oak when she said this. If she had been standing on a spruce tree, it would have been called 'En gran' in norwegian language. 'Føl' = 'feel', as in 'feelings'. 'Føl telly'? There used to be a tradition of raising a christmas tree from Norway in London some days before christmas.

Could be some of these things could be packed into the name of 'Dagfinn Kåre Føllesdal' with similar L/R twist for 'Dagfinn Kolle Førresdal' - hence also 'Lef Ørestjal/Ølestahl' = Liv Glaser? 'Øl' = 'beer'.

Badiou p.525 tells of a memory of Celan's son Eric Celan from one of the days before 20 april 1970:

"Er hält sich mit seinem Vater in einem Café nahe dem Trocadéro auf. Der Kellner bringt Celan, der ein kleines Bier bestellt hat, stattdessen ein Radler. Celan deutet dies in wahnhafter Verwirrung und legt eine Aggressivität an den Tag, die seinen Sohn verstört. Doch versucht Eric, den Vater zu beruhigen, und kann ihn letztlich davon überzeugen, gemeinsam nach Hause zu gehen".

This story could be understood on background of such a role for an 'Ølestahl' qua 'Glaser' and could be seen also on the background of my meetings in the late 1980's with the man who called himself 'John Grøver' at the cafe on Karl Johan Street in Oslo above the then farmacy 'Svanen': He had ordered a coffee and the waiter came with it and poured it onto his trouser fly and both pretended like nothing. (One should believe that it must have meant that it was preappointed). If the 'Lockerbie' bombing took place after this (it could have been around the same times), that could perhaps even be seen in connection with this 'beer-glass' story of Celan from 1970. [11/8-25: It can be added that there were two wellknown female pianists in Norway in those years - in addition to Glaser there was Eva Knardahl, whose name (probably from Knardal) by a deplorable logic - it could suggest the idea of a woman 'kneading' a man's behind - could have received a quasi-jocular interpretation on the form of 'a doll fitler'].

The 'Grøver' family had also a record by Jörg Demus - probably Schubert's '4 impromptus' - here with the first. Demus was the brother of Klaus Demus who through a number of years was a close friend of Celan - although Celan for some years seemingly kept a distance or even completely broke off all contact with him.

Nelly Sachs was born 'Leonie Sachs' in 1891 - 25 years before the Fatima revelations. Norw. 'de[t] on[d]es akse' = 'the axis of evil', cp. 'the axes/axe is of a fir'. For 'the axis of evil', cp. also this phenomenon. [PS: Sorry, I did not with this mean to suggest that ÖVP is evil].

14/8-2025: As I was writing these observations, I looked also at the idea whether Celan could have been conceived in relation to Jensen/Grøver already from the start of his life. I looked e.g. at the article titles for Modern Language Review just before his birth (to compare with e.g. the ones of Jensen). When I today read the news that Ägidius Exenberger, the mayor of Spital am Pyhrn, had fallen down from a high bridge yesterday 13/9 before noon, I recognized the third title "The shepherd Tony' - a recapitulation. By M.St.Clare Byrne" in 'Spital am Pyhrn'. See also this 'Byrne'.

In this old file there are also a few things which perhaps could be of some interest. There is mention in this file of a possible abuse of the names of some neighbours of the late 1970's. I could tell a small episode from the house in Voldgaten 1 at the end of the 1970's: The child's mother had kindly invited me for dinner with porridge made from rice ('rice pudding') which normally is served with cinnamon [norwegian 'kanel'] and butter [norwegian 'smør'] that melts on it. The child was in a mood which in norwegian can be called 'trumpe[te]' (she did not want to eat the dinner, I think was the story) and another guest tried to cheer her up with offering 'snørr' ('snot') and 'kamel' ('camel') - which she found too amusing and therefore had to surrender from her 'trumpe' mood. This happened right under my flat. It is not impossible that this little everyday event could have been a background of the fire in Notre-Dame in Paris on 15 April 2019 at 18:18 CEST if the fire had been caused by e.g. a political laser beam that aimed at bringing an end to the 'trumpe' mood of USA - cp. also the 'auto-fellatio' theme of the delayed ferry that could have been a part of the story with the replacement of the father in the summer 1969 under circumstances which seem to have been rather precisely indexed by the names of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. If this should have been the story, it would have been an example of the apparently extensive (and possibly raw) abuse of my life and work and here possibly also of the story of Celan's relation to Demus - which then could have been put in a '666' relation to the Apenes murder.

The murder of 'Aldo Moro' in possibly the same night as Inger-Johanne Apenes (in the sense of 'the old mother' - here by Apenes as the mother of then conservative MP Georg Apenes) could have been a part of the attempted construction of a 'nazi madonna' as a political project relative to Adolf Hitler (see e.g. my analysis of Caravaggio's 'Judas kiss' by the two persons on the 'motorcycle'). 'Dom' (in 'al DOM oro') is a word that could have been a theoretic background of such a Notre-Dame fire. (There was also a brief episode in the late 1970's with the child coming up to me and started weeping when she came in and I was not quick enough to understand that I should have offered her comforting on the lap and she therefore (?) turned and went down again - this quasi '8 bells toll' story on the floor above (which also could have been abused for a possibly attempted 'pedo' program on my person - I have never had any such problems) could have added to a possible 'nazi madonna' program.

It would have been the abuse of my person and my social relations that could have been a reason for such an explanation to the Apenes murder and possibly also the fire in Notre-Dame - the event with the child was only a very everyday event with normal people that I would believe were not involved - but who would invite me for dinner or whatever another time? This story is probably also only a drop in the ocean of other such stories based on my interface to the society (including also my PhD which I believe was rejected for similar quasi-political reasons - and the apparent 'ocean of plagiarisms' of my literary work that there seem to have been in publishing) - which also could have been for a program of the state power of Norway to have annexed my authority through such abuses since early childhood and they dont want to give that away again: It is very possible that the world still believes that it is me they are talking with when they talk with them. A fire in Notre-Dame could even have served to consolidate this confusion that could have been kept going through pop music and plagiarisms on a large scale. And it could have been a part of a 'plagiarism' program on me for turning roles around - on background of the story of Celan and Weissglas.

The story, if this should have anything to do with the real world, would have been another little part of the reason why Norway should have come out with an apology and 'billighetserstatning' since long. It could in theory have been a political wish in Norway of continueing the construction of a 'nazi madonna' which could have been a part of the reason why this so far has not come about. The yesterday death of Ägidius Exenberger, the mayor of Spital am Pyhrn, could perhaps be another example of what could have been avoided by getting this old apparent mixmax program down. Today I observed in the ditch at a parked motorcycle what looked like two helmets which on my return some time later had been replaced with what looked like two catalogues of some sort wrapped in white plastic bag.

I notice that when Zinckgasse is between Hackengasse (cp. 'da-hakket-de-i-issen') and Pelzgasse (cp. the name of 'Føllesdal' with R/L conversion), this could tell why an apology and 'billighetserstatning' could be of large importance. I do not want to have my life conditions 'improved' by any sort of terror (such as this mayor yesterday - could be for a program that looks favourable for me - 'look at this genius - he could discover the fourth archetype by leafing in a bookshop in a hungarian book which probably is not even translated into other languages' - could be the same untranslatedness could be said about Sándor Weöres: 'Rongyszönyeg II') - in particular not if it should be 'instead of' such a reparation.

There was recently an update of my Windows 10 - it is not impossible that this could have affected the function of 'files upload' to internet in the form that it has become more difficult to select a large number of most recent files for upload (at least this seems to be the situation now, for whatever reason) and it is possible that each filename could have to be typed in separately - however ingenious and however many these files could be. The Windows update claims that my computer cannot update to Windows 11 since there are hardware limitations - and Microsoft has advertised with its new Copilot models - 'instead' of my computer type? (I dont know if this problem arose with the update, though - and the update was announced at a certain time - and 'cognitive occasion'?)

15/8-25: As concerns the mayor of Spital - are we assumed to accept the 'explanation' - 'had he farted'? Is there a mayor there - or has there been a 'comunque-sammenslåing'? Taken two (helmets)? Could be the genius would have had a larger skull if they had not put on a wrong top-of-the-head after it was opened in 1957, if that were the story? If somebody conducts terror to my apparent 'advantage', that could of course be for having a good reason to 'take him' later - for such 'cynical abuse of other people for own advantages' - cp. the idea 'he had farted', which would not be a goodenough reason for accepting such potential terror. If my Windows 10 has deteriorated in performance after the update, it could perhaps be called 'on-yar-nerover'.

18/8-2025: Four bodies were found floating in the Seine on 14 august 2025, four days after I published the above. I made the first draft to this article on 8 august 2025 around 16:00 Vienna time. However, I made the first recent mention of Celan ending his life in the Seine in the 'brief comments' of 5 august 2025. Would the four bodies that were found in the Seine on 14 august have been intended to 'mean' 'The Endmorgan Quartet'?

Sources:

Badiou, B.: Paul Celan. Bildbiographie. In Zusammenarbeit mit Nicolas Geibel. Mit einem Essay von Michael Kardamitsis. Suhrkamp 2023.

Celan, P.: Die Gedichte. Ed. Barbara Wiedemann. Suhrkamp 2003.

Celan, P.: Todesfuge. Poem (of 1945)

Celan, P.: Und mit dem Buch aus Tarussa. In: Celan 2003 p.164-166.

Grayling, A.C.: An introduction to philosophical logic. London 1990.

Grover, J.: The Yom Kippur war

Grover, J.: The replacement of the father

Grover, J.: The Endmorgan Quartet poem #2, Wien 2013.

Linsky, L.: Reference and modality. Oxford 1971 Weissglas, I.: Er. Poem (of 1944?)

Wiedemann, B.: Paul Celan - Die Goll-Affäre. Suhrkamp 2000.

Wikipedia article: Paul Celan.