Correspondence - Opening

1

Paul Celan to Ingeborg Bachmann, poem and dedication in a book of Matisse paintings, Vienna 24(?) June 1948

'In Egypt'

For Ingeborg

Thou shalt say to the strange woman's eye: be the water!

Thou shalt seek in the stranger's eye those whom thou knowest to be in the water.

Thou shalt call them from the water: Ruth! Noemi! Miriam!

Thou shalt adorn them when thou liest with the stranger.

Thou shalt adorn them with the cloud-hair of the stranger.

Thou shalt say to Ruth, to Miriam and Noemi:

Behold, I sleep next to her!

Thou shalt adorn the stranger next to thee most beautifully of all

Thou shalt adorn her with the pain over Ruth, over Miriam and Noemi.

Thous shalt say to the stranger:
Behold, I slept next to these!

Vienna, 23 May 1948

To the meticulous one,

22 years after her birthday,

From the unmeticulous one