From a posthumous poem by Paul Celan, this paper analyses Theodor W. Adorno's dictum about the impossibility of lyrical poetry after Auschwitz and try to define the influence of such proposition in Celan's work. At the same time, it inquires into the reception of Celan's poetry on Adorno's own ideas, especially on his Negative Dialektik and Ästhetische Theorie. Finally, it explores the paradoxes of every poetical language which pretend to express Holocaust artistically.
Celan; Adorno; Auschwitz; poetry; language; art