Paul Celan (1920-1970) was born in Romania to German-speaking Jewish parents. During World War II, his parents were deported to and eventually died in a Nazi concentration camp, and Celan himself was interned for eighteen months. Celan settled in Paris after the war, where he worked as a poet and translator, translating a wide range of works, including poetry by Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Charles Baudelaire. Celan received the 1958 Bremen Prize for German Literature and the 1960 Georg Buchner Prize, and he taught German language and literature at the École Normale Supérieure until his death in 1970.
Jason Kavett is a translator of German literature and an assistant professor of German Studies at Bard College. Bertrand Badiou is the co-director of the Paul Celan Department at the École normale supérieure in Paris, editor of Celan’s works and letters in Germany (Suhrkamp Verlag) and France (Éditions du Seuil). Together with Eric Celan he manages the poet’s estate.