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Sat 07 Jul 2007A difficult language to learnPoetry:In March 1984 I asked Samuel Beckett would he consider writing an introduction to Paul Celan: 65 Poems, a volume of translations done in collaboration with Peter Jankowsky (Raven Books, 1985). Beckett replied inter alia: "I never met him and could not write about his work." That "could not" bears thinking about. No one was better qualified for the task than Beckett, because, of all writers, only he came close to Celan in being a master of the art of silence. It's also possible to imagine a causal linkage between "could not" and "never met" - as the following story suggests.