The lines in italics are citations from Celan's poem Engführung: "Die Nacht / braucht keine Sterne, nirgends / fragt es nach dir" (Celan 1988). In the essay, Blanchot includes the German text (without indication of source) in the margins alongside the italicized translations in his text. The title of Blanchot's essay derives from the poem Sprich auch du, in his essay he translates the line "sprich als letzter" as "parle le dernier à parler."