"In April 1970 Celan went from the bridge into the Seine River and though a strong swimmer, died unobserved. His last letter, to that childhood “orphaned” friend in Israel, had quoted Kafka about finding happiness “only if I can raise the world into the Pure, the True, the Immutable.” Celan was still making kindred spirits speak for him. A biography of Hölderlin was found on his desk, open to an underlined passage about the great poet’s last demented years: “Sometimes this genius goes dark and sinks down into the bitter well of his heart.” Yet Celan had not, I noticed…underlined the rest of that sentence in the Hölderlin biography. Though Celan did not underline it, I will close now by underlining it for him: “but mostly his apocalyptic star glitters wondrously."
—John Felstiner from Translating as Transference: Paul Celan’s Versions of Shakespeare, Dickinson, Mandelshtam, Apollinaire
