ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book addresses some late poems from Fadensonnen and Zeitgehoft where Celan seems to set German and Jewish singing and music-making in opposition to each other. The poem is framed by two conditional phrases, each set off by the subordinate conjunction 'Wenn'. Against this Jewish sphere of the 'Wenn' condition, the final stanza sets the German sphere of the 'dann' corollary, which is equally steeped in musical imagery. On a phonetic level, one recognizes the salient structures of repetition effecting an interruption of linguistic flow and reference: verbatim reiteration, assonant variation and alliteration, foreground the acoustic structure of the verses. The relation between Jewish and German music-making is also a mirror image of the dissonance contained in the word 'Aschrej' between German fascism and Jewish piety.
