link from Margeurite:

Margareta: For the Celan critic, John Felstiner, whose translation of Death Fugue you read, the Margareta in the poem recalls two Romantic German ideals of the feminine, the heroine of Goethe's Faust, and the lyric poet, Heinrich Heine's golden-haired Lorelei. Both Goethe and Heine were revered as classic voices in German literature and formers of German culture. (John Felstiner, Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor, Jew (New Haven 1995), p. 36)

The Lorelei is the siren who sits on a rock in the Rhine below the city of Koblenz, trying to lure sailors to their deaths through her physical beauty and the beauty of her song. The German-speaking composers, Schubert and Schumann, also set many of Heine's lyrics to music. These associations also reflect back on the musical theme Celan establishes in the poem.

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