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Finding Poetry in the Landscape Of Paul Celan’s Bukovina

JL;DR SUMMARY Joshua Cohen embarks on a personal journey to explore the landscapes that shaped the renowned 20th-century poet Paul Celan. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

IdentityJewish HistoryHolocaustEastern EuropePoetryLiterary CriticismPaul CelanJewish SurvivalBukovinaLandscape

Places mentioned

Prague, Prague, Hlavní mešto, Czechia
"I began my pilgrimage in Prague, the city in which I now live, evoked by Paul Celan in his poem In Prague:"
Chernivtsy, Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine
"To the north of Celans hometown, Czernowitz (now Chernivtsy), is the spreading Ukraine;"
Paris, France
"far, far to the west is Paris, Celans adopted home, where he lost a son in infancy and himself died a suicide a week after Passover in 1970;"
Bucharest, Romania
"to the south is Romania, and Bucharest its capital, the poorly nicknamed Paris of the East where Celan worked in 1945 translating Russian works into Romanian;"
Botosani, Botoşani, Romania
"On the way to Ukraine we passed a milkwoman, outside of Botosani, and asked her for directions to the border, to the further reaches of Bukovina, a land that doesnt obey borders."

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Retrieved 2026-06-09 05:31:56 UTC
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