Breathturn Into Timestead

From the Mother Tongue Spells & Invocation collection. 

"The poet Paul Celan survived a labor camp during WWII and moved to France. He was fluent in several languages and could have written his poems in any one of them, but instead chose German, his mother tongue—the language of his mother's murderers (she was shot in a concentration camp). The book belongs in the library because, for Celan, writing in his mother tongue was both an act of resistance, and also a reckoning with a past full of horrors. His poetry "dismantled and rewelded" his mother tongue, one critic wrote. His writing gained recognition in the years following the war, but he remained haunted by the past, and took his own life in 1970." - Shoshana Berger

Borrow, share, exchange as you wish, and return by the end of the season on February 6th. Pick up at the gallery anytime, and return and swap for a new book of your choosing. To our global friends - online borrowing is possible, just pay for the shipping there and back. 

The Mother Tongue Library is a love letter to the thinkers, writers, and artists who’ve given us the language of courage when we needed it most.