Dalla «candida rosa» alla «rosa di niente, di nessuno».Paul Celan legge Dante

From «candida rosa» to «rosa di niente, di nessuno». Paul Celan reads Dante The numerous annotations Celan left on his editions of Dante’s works and on his personal papers testify to the intensity with which he read Dante through out his life, and show how reading Dante generated a creative momentum in his own writing. The essay discusses the reasons behind Celan’s decision not to publish poems of unequivocal Dantesque inspiration and argues this may be due to his desire to avoid the recurrent perusal of the idea of “Hell” associated with the extermination camps. Celan, on the contrary, in the wake of Mandel’.tam, is interested in Dante’s entrance in a space that is both geographical and poetic, in his polyphonic ear, and in longing for light and life and love – to constrast dark ness and silence and death. Celan believes this can only be experienced through cracks and ruptures, not as light born through harmony; yet his notes also bear witness to his continuous quest for it.