A Nation of One: Nelly Sachs
I imagine her standing by a window, alone, an older, frail bird-like woman. She is looking out at a foreign city for she is in exile. She is thinking in the language of the executioners because that is her language also. She is thinking in German, Hitler’s German. She does not want to think, but the words keep coming. She feels alone. She sits down, picks up a pencil. She begins to write. She feels that she must rescue her language from the makers of the death camps. She writes. She invents her own mythology and methodology. Her task is enormous. She must restore a sense of meaning. She starts by inventing a voice, a tone just her own, a tone of authenticity.