Abstract
The German-writing Jewish poet Paul Celan is a constant source of wonder for his original work with language, a legendary origin of philosophizing. That is why philosophers have returned to him repeatedly in an attempt to come to terms with his poetic work.
But even Celan himself was a diligent student of the philosophical writings of his time, especially the personalist philosophy of Martin Buber and the ontological thought of Martin Heidegger, from whom he drew much of the impetus for his conception of language. In reference to Buber, Celan understands speech dialogically as addressing another person, even if that person is not listening or present.
Following Heidegger, Celan understands speech as a continuous and unstoppable event on the way to the aforementioned addressing of the other person. To poem - which is the exemplary modus of speech - then means to be constantly on the way to speech itself, which speaks through addressing, listening and responding.
Celan devoted two famous texts, originally written as thank-you speeches on the occasion of two literary awards, to his almost "theoretical" reflections on the essential determinations of speech, art, poetry, and the poet himself. In them, the strong influence and inspiration of the thought of Martin Heidegger is particularly evident, who also provided the title for the presented purely philosophical attempt to understand Celan's work.