DEATH FUGUE BY PAUL CELAN

The black milk of sunrise we drink it up evenings
we drink it up mornings at midday we drink it up nights

we drink it we drink it
we dig our own grave while the wind howls there's plenty of room
A man's in his house he's playing with serpents he writes
he writes while Germany darkens your long golden hair Margarete
he writes on and walks from his house and the stars
are all shining he whistles his whole pack comes out
he whistles his Jews out makes them dig their own grave
in the earth
he commands us now play for the dance

The black milk of sunrise we drink you up nights
we drink you up mornings at midday we drink you up
evenings
we drink you we drink you
A man's in his house he's playing with serpents he
writes
he writes while Germany darkens your long golden
hair Margarete
Your shorn ashen hair Shulamith we dig our own grave
while the wind howls there's plenty of room

He shouts dig deeper much deeper you here and you
there sing now and play now
he takes lead from his belt and he pounds it his eyes
are deep blue
your spades must dig deeper you here and you there
prepare for the dance

The black milk of sunrise we drink you up nights
we drink you middays and mornings we drink you up
evenings
we drink you we drink you
a man's in his house your long golden hair Margarete
your shorn ashen hair Shulamith he's playing with
serpents
He shouts more sweetly play death for death is a master
he's German
he shouts more darkly now strike the stings then rise
up as smoke in the sky
then you'll have a grave in the sky there's plenty of
room

The black milk of sunrise we drink you up nights
we drink you at midday for death is a master he's
German
we drink you up evenings and mornings we drink you
we drink you
for death is a master he's German his eyes are deep
blue
he fires lead bullets at you he doesn't miss
a man's in his house your long golden hair Margarete
he drives out his whole pack against us he grants us
a grave in the sky
he's playing with serpents while dreaming for death is
a master he's German

your long golden hair Margarete
your shorn ashen hair Shulamith


translated from the German
by Thomas Dorsett
first published in International Poetry Review,
Vol.XVI Number 2, Fall, 1990

NOTE TO Osher Readers: As promised I have put this poem on the blog. Paul Celan (1920-1970) was a major poet of the second half of the twentieth century. He came from a Jewish family who lived in what was at that time Romania. He remained in Romania during the Second World War, and spent a good deal of the time in labor camps. He urged his parents to flee, but this didn't happen. They were given over to the Nazis; his father probably died of typhus and his mother was shot in the head when she became too exhausted to work any more. I always remember the line of Celan's in reference to his mother, who was very fond of German culture: "Meine sanfte Mutter wird nicht komment." ("My gentle mother will never come (to me) again.") He was very much burdened by survivor guilt and took his own life in Paris in 1970 by jumping into the Seine river. "Death Fugue" which recalls the Dance of Death symbolism of medieval times, is arguably the best and most terrifying poem ever written about those horrible events. Note: Margarete, the heroine of Goethe's Faust represents German gentile culture; Shulamith, mentioned in the Song of Songs represents the Jewish people.

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