Cover design: Jack Ross(May 1) The Britney Suite, by Paul Celan, Wendy Nu & Jack Ross. Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2001. 24 pp. [gift edition of 20 numbered copies].
- Paul Celan, SCHNEEPART, gebäumt, bis zuletzt … [22/1/68]
- Snowpart (24/10-30/11/2000)
- Wendy Nu, keith partridge y yo (6/9-21/10/2000)
- Paul Celan, ERZFLITTER, tief im … [20/7/68]
- Orespark (24/10-30/11/2000)
- Who is Wendy Nu? (25/7/2000)
- Nouvelle vague (25/7-26/8-20/10-26/10/2000)
- Paul Celan, KALK-KROKUS, im … [24/8/68]
- Chalk-Crocus (24/10-28/11/2000)
- Letter (29/10/2000)
- Wendy Nu, mr darling writes to penthouse forum (6/9-21/10/2000)
- Paul Celan, DAS GEDUNKELTE Splitterecho … [5/9/68]
- Dark (24/10-28/11/2000)
- It’s always too late … (4-16/11/2000)
- Paul Celan, BEIDHÄNDIGE Frühe … [29/9/69]
- Both-Handed (24/10-28/11/2000)
For Dieter & Jan Riemenschneider-Kemp
Все поэти жиди
– Marina Tsvetayeva, “Poem of the End” (1924)
[All poets – yids]
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I am eighteen years old and I have the whole world staring at me – Britney Spears
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Language doesn’t just build bridges into the world, but into loneliness – Paul CelanSNOWPART close-ribbed to the last updraft in front always gap-windowed huts flat dreams shave stiff brist led ice hew out word shadows cord them round the ringbolt in the pit
(24/10-30/11/2000)
Publications:
- The Britney Suite, by Paul Celan, Wendy Nu & Jack Ross (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2001).
- A Clearer View of the Hinterland: Poems & Sequences 1981-2014. ISBN: 978-0-473-29640-7 (Wellington: HeadworX, 2014): 30-31.
Notes:
- All quotations from Britney Spears have been extracted from Marcelle Katz’s interview, “Oops, she did it again …” NZ TV Guide (October 13, 2000) 6-7.
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that other partridge cassidy he’s the one things happen to record deals money marriages childbirth i continue to ex ist however in sulated from his whining in the flicker of a late night cathoid tube be getting what? he was always up per but now only i re main sweet scented fresh of face daydream in a mirror lake breasts pressed against huggy bear hand work ing working i will always be there leader of the pack the bus the buns the – Wendy Nu
(6/9-21/10/2000)
Publications:
- The Britney Suite, by Paul Celan, Wendy Nu & Jack Ross (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2001).
- A Clearer View of the Hinterland: Poems & Sequences 1981-2014. ISBN: 978-0-473-29640-7 (Wellington: HeadworX, 2014): 32-33.
Notes:
- The “Cut Above” advertisement was taken from the New Zealand Herald (November 6, 2001) C7.
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Poems: gifts … gifts to the attentive – Paul Celan
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Gedichte, das sind auch Geschenke – Geschenke an die Aufmerksamen Mai 1960ORESPARK deep in the upthrust f/orefathers you get away with it like fossil sperm saying an only word to them chalkspoor megaphone found lost in the karst beds spare clear
(24/10-30/11/2000)
Publications:
- The Britney Suite, by Paul Celan, Wendy Nu & Jack Ross (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2001).
- A Clearer View of the Hinterland: Poems & Sequences 1981-2014. ISBN: 978-0-473-29640-7 (Wellington: HeadworX, 2014): 34-35.
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Wendy Nu is a dreamgirl. Literally. She came to me in a dream, up near Spirits’ Bay. Or rather, in the dream I heard other people talking about her – she never actually appeared. That morning, when I woke up, I got two poems: not in my manner, I thought, but hers. Later, I began to get some images of her: dark, perhaps Chinese? – serious, successful, driven – an artist drawn to extremities, and kitsch. Her obsession with pop-cult campiness (The Partridge Family, Peter Pan) is a bit out of my vein, though I can see where she’s coming from. She came into this poem, jostling for space with Britney Spears. Only Celan proved too tenacious to dislodge.
(25/7/2000)
Publications:
- The Britney Suite, by Paul Celan, Wendy Nu & Jack Ross (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2001).
- A Clearer View of the Hinterland: Poems & Sequences 1981-2014. ISBN: 978-0-473-29640-7 (Wellington: HeadworX, 2014): 36.
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ISBNs should not be given to ephemeral printed materials such as diaries, theatre and concert programmes, prospectuses, etc. – NZ Standard Book Numbering Agency Fact Sheetwhenever & take spirit e hottest peep show everywhere brothers and sisters we the workers in town we can oobs butts meet our and the poor best friend will d something in between nature destroy to create nbelievable take a magic moments grip of unlock the labs steering open door peepsAh l’a Things are more alive than people l’Islam rabesque sack rolling in front n’est pas le nu of traffic une religion sans la squeegee twirled around de doute volup the cassette that kept turning comme la té till you’d had enough nôtre il y a de la certi tude
(25/7-26/8-20/10-26/10/2000)
Publications:
- The Britney Suite, by Paul Celan, Wendy Nu & Jack Ross (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2001).
- Landfall 202 (2001): 111.
- A Clearer View of the Hinterland: Poems & Sequences 1981-2014. ISBN: 978-0-473-29640-7 (Wellington: HeadworX, 2014): 37.
Notes:
- The passages in French are quoted from ]ean-Luc Godard, Nouvelle Vague (München: ECM, 1997). They can be translated as follows: “Islam is not a religion of doubt, like ours: there is certainty there.”
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My main focus are my fans. Not some 40-year-old fart – Britney Spears
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Poems are sketches for existence: the poet lives up to them – Paul CelanCHALK-CROCUS at daybreak your multidimension/locational WANTED poster vital statistics stop bombs smile at you the dent of Dasein helps the radar out the Manukau silts up the vaults
(24/10-28/11/2000)
Publications:
- The Britney Suite, by Paul Celan, Wendy Nu & Jack Ross (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2001).
- A Clearer View of the Hinterland: Poems & Sequences 1981-2014. ISBN: 978-0-473-29640-7 (Wellington: HeadworX, 2014): 38-39.
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Isn’t this ‘Britney Spears’ some sort of sixteen-year- old pop idol with a pretty face and plastic voice? I think I noticed a lot of 9-year-old girls on a documentary going on about how she was their heroine and ultimate symbol of everything good in life. Oh yeah, more’s beginning to come back to me ... she’s impertinently sexy, licks her lips and looks like she’s just come in from an all-night party at the local brothel, and proclaims she’s a virgin and gives lectures about traditional family values. She the one? – Letter to the author (29 October, 2000)
(29/10/2000)
Publications:
- The Britney Suite, by Paul Celan, Wendy Nu & Jack Ross (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2001).
- A Clearer View of the Hinterland: Poems & Sequences 1981-2014. ISBN: 978-0-473-29640-7 (Wellington: HeadworX, 2014): 40.
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dear forum i think my secretary likes me the other day she was slurping my footlong yes I know it sounds a lot but she works out every morning and is now accustomed to it when i nearly came out and asked her do you like me id have preferred to use her christian name though for such a declaration and i dont know what it is take some dicktation instead ms smith i said and sodomised her on the desk its preying on my mind is it just my imagination sometimes when im deep inside i see the faintest glimmer in her eyes as if there was something there some kind of feeling love tenderness call it what you will then she orgasms instead ive tried buying her things not just the usual g strings baby dolls vibrators but romantic things a bunch of flowers liqueur chocolates she takes the lot the loot beautiful booty i dont know what to do talking to her seems such an extreme step to take and yet i fear i may be driven to it i cannot work or sleep or even masturbate to climax what would you suggest im really desperate – Wendy Nu
(6/9-21/10/2000)
Publications:
- The Britney Suite, by Paul Celan, Wendy Nu & Jack Ross (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2001).
- A Clearer View of the Hinterland: Poems & Sequences 1981-2014. ISBN: 978-0-473-29640-7 (Wellington: HeadworX, 2014): 41.
Notes:
- "Mr Darling” is intended as a reference to the character in J. M. Barrie’s play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up (1904).
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Poetry no longer imposes itself, it exposes itself – Paul Celan
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DARK splinter echo nerve im pulse the groyne above the turn where it ends up panopticon it’s not just look the worship chute one riflebutt away from prayer silos one none
(24/10-28/11/2000)
Publications:
- The Britney Suite, by Paul Celan, Wendy Nu & Jack Ross (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2001).
- A Clearer View of the Hinterland: Poems & Sequences 1981-2014. ISBN: 978-0-473-29640-7 (Wellington: HeadworX, 2014): 42-43.
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About 20 April 1970, around Passover, Celan went from the bridge into the Seine and, though a strong swimmer, drowned unobserved. ... Mail piled up under the door of his barely furnished flat. Gisèle called a friend to see if perhaps her husband had at last gone to Prague. On 1 May a fisherman came on his body seven miles downstream. … People have said that Celan took his own life at forty-nine because valid speech in German was impossible after or about Auschwitz. Yet this was the impossibility that incited him … And he did speak – more validly than could ever have been imagined. Maybe he felt too alone: “no one / witnesses for the / witness.” – John Felstiner, Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor, Jew (1995)It’s always too late when you got nothing – Nine Daysit’s always too late when you got nothing walking in the rain or under girders seeing in a special way the light from buses, passing did I ask you? what? too soon, no doubt my friend is Wendy Wendy Nu she’s trying to climb out
(4-16/11/2000)
Publications:
- The Britney Suite, by Paul Celan, Wendy Nu & Jack Ross (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2001).
- A Clearer View of the Hinterland: Poems & Sequences 1981-2014. ISBN: 978-0-473-29640-7 (Wellington: HeadworX, 2014): 44-45.
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You can be a good person and still be sexy – Britney Spears
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when is it not a question of last things? – Paul CelanBOTH-HANDED dawn hold up my eye till you appear how many seagulls stall above your forehead? The word rattles like surf my negative by you a stone-mad swinging door give up too early night
(24/10-28/11/2000)
Publications:
- The Britney Suite, by Paul Celan, Wendy Nu & Jack Ross (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2001).
- A Clearer View of the Hinterland: Poems & Sequences 1981-2014. ISBN: 978-0-473-29640-7 (Wellington: HeadworX, 2014): 46-47.
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