On April 20, 1970, the poet Paul Celan left his home in Paris, walked to a bridge over the River Seine, and jumped to his death. He left a biography of Hölderlin open on his desk, with the following words underlined: "Sometimes this genius goes dark and sinks down into the bitter well of his heart."The sentence does not end there. Celan chose not to underline the rest: "but mostly his apocalyptic star glitters wondrously.
-Maggie Nelson
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