Thirty-Two Poems

Limited first edition. 8vo. Pp. [ii], 39, [6]. Quarter-bound dark green morocco over avocado coloured paper boards, lettered in gilt to spine; fore- and bottom edges uncut. Matching avocado green endpapers. In marbled slipcase. 28/100 copies printed on Barcham-Green paper, with an original tissue-guarded etching frontis., and signed by the artist [and Celan's widow], Gisèle Celan-Lestrange, and translator, Michael Hamburger, to colophon page.

Selection of poems translated by Michael Hamburger from their original publications in German: Von Schwelle zu Schwelle (1955), Sprachgitter (1959), Die Niemandsrose (1963) and Atemwende (1967). As a German-speaking survivor of the Shoah, Celan harboured ambivalent feelings towards his native language and set about "dismantling and rewelding" it in his poetry.