Paul Celan is among the most important German-language poets of the century, and, in George Steiner’s words, ‘almost certainly the major European poet of the period after 1945.’ Language, Celan said, was the only thing that remained intact for him after the war. His experiences of the war years and of the loss of his parents are the recurrent themes of his poetry. In the end they led as well to his suicide by drowning in 1970.

Michael Hamburger’s extensive selection of Celan’s poems is presented in facing-text form, prefaced by an illuminating introduction. This third Anvil edition of his selected translations now includes the previously uncollected longer poem ‘Wolf’s Bean’, several additional short poems, and the essay ‘On Translating Celan’ in which he discusses the challenges faced over many years in his engagement with Celan’s poetry.