Psalm
By Paul Celan
No one kneads us again out of earth and clay,
no one incants our dust.
No one.
Blessèd art thou, No One.
In thy sight would
we bloom.
In thy
spite.
A Nothing
we were, are now, and ever
shall be, blooming:
the Nothing-, the
No-One's-Rose.
With
our pistil soul-bright,
our stamen heaven-waste,
our corona red
from the purpleword we sang
over, O over
the thorn.
Copyright Credit: Paul Celan, "Psalm" from Selected Poems and Prose, translated by John Felstiner. Copyright © 2001 by John Felstiner. Used by permission of the author and W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Source: Selected Poems and Prose, translated by John Felstiner (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001)