The following essay is a ‘close reading’. It tries to understand one of the rare poetological statements of Paul Celan. I focus on the introduction of a four page letter to the Austrian Ludwig von Ficker, benefactor of Georg Trakl and editor of the periodical ‚Der Brenner‘ in Innsbruck. In 1951, Celan was in Paris trying to find an editor for his poems and hoping to renew a friendly relationship begun some two years earlier before leaving Austria. The text of this letter has never been thoroughly studied. And yet it seems to be one of the rare utterings of the poet about his difficult situation as a Jewish author, feeling the strong impulse to produce poems in the language of the murderers.