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90:" (male dogs) and "Juden" (Jews) are assonant in German), and commands "us" to play music and dance. "He" uses the phrase "your golden hair Margarete", (hair, like the "black milk" becomes a recurrent theme of the poem); this may possibly be in the letter that he writes to Germany, although the wording leaves this unclear.
44:, others regard the poem as one that "combines mysteriously compelling imagery with rhythmic variations and structural patterns that are both elusive and pronounced". At the same time it has been regarded as a "masterful description of horror and death in a concentration camp". Celan was born to a
85:
The "we" of the poem describes drinking the black milk of dawn at evening, noon, daybreak and night, and shovelling "a grave in the skies". They introduce a "he", who writes letters to
Germany, plays with snakes, whistles orders to his dogs and to his Jews to dig a grave in the earth (the words
385:
Bonnie Roos asserts that the poem "has become a national symbol in postwar
Germany." Nan Rosenthal has noted "It was anthologised in readers for high-schools...It was also set to music by numerous German composers and read on television programmes...To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of
142:), made doubly poignant by the circumstance that the author was known to be a Jew from Eastern Europe." It has often been assumed to reflect the author's own experiences, but Celan himself was never a prisoner in a death camp; the poem reflects more directly the experiences recounted to him.
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In a further reworking of the themes and images of the poem so far, it emerges that "Death is a master from
Germany, his eye is blue", and the "he" shoots his victims with leaden bullets, and sets his dogs on the victims, leading to their "grave in the sky." The final two lines of the poem
269:" ("Tango of Death") in 1947; Celan's close friend Petre Solomon was the translator. This version was also the first poem to be published under the pseudonym "Celan", derived from the syllables of "Antschel", Celan's real name. The original German version appeared in the 1948
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52:, Ukraine); his parents were murdered in the Holocaust, and Celan himself was a prisoner for a time in a work camp. The poem has reached international relevance by being considered to be one of the most important poems of the post-war period and the most relevant example of
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v. 3; "For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion"). Moreover, in the specific context of German poetry, they recall the slaves in
164:. Ausländer herself is recorded as saying that Celan's use of this image was "self-explanatory, as the poet may take all material to transmute in his own poetry. It's an honour to me that a great poet found a stimulus in my own modest work".
110:
Again the images are counterpointed and extended. "He" is now associated with the phrase "Death is a master from
Germany", and in his orders to play music threatens "you'll rise to the sky like smoke, you'll have a grave in the clouds".
39:
probably around 1945 and first published in 1948. It is one of his best-known and often-anthologized poems. Despite critics claiming that the lyrical finesse and aesthetic of the poem did not do justice to the cruelty of the
66:
The poem is 36 lines long, with breaks after lines 9, 15, 18, 23 and 26, which would seem to divide it into six stanzas. However critics typically regard it as being in four sections, each of which begins with the image
210:, and the two were at school together, and knew each other in the immediate post-war period in Bucharest, when they were also both acquainted with Rose Ausländer. It was probably Weissglas, who had been interned in
275:, Celan's first collection of poems; but the print run was small, and the edition was withdrawn because of its many misprints. The poem first became well known when it was included in Celan's 1952 collection,
308:, the phrases and rhythms of the work parallelling the introduction and repetition of musical themes. Rhythm is a strong element of the work, which in its Romanian and German typescript versions was called
326:
While the events which emerge for the poem strongly evoke aspects of life (and death) in the concentration camps, other references are more indirect. "Margarete" may evoke the heroine of
323:
rhythms. These are brought out in the poet's own reading of the work, which also varies speed, becoming faster at moments of tension and slowing dramatically for the final lines.
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which can be translated as "Black milk of dawn." The speaking voice in the poem is mostly a collective "We". The structure of the poem has been said to reflect that of a musical
254:" that Celan "rearranges elements without adding any new ones; the elements are the same, but he manages to create something completely different using them".
196:" includes lines about "Gretchen's golden hair", "digging graves in the air", "playing with snakes", and "Death, the German Master", all of which occur in "
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347:
There is extensive evidence of Nazi concentration camp orchestras being created from amongst the prisoners and forced to provide entertainment for their
220:" was written in the early 1940s (the exact date is unknown), and was never published. It was, however, part of a typescript collection by Weissglas,
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The poem's concluding couplet—in translation, "your golden hair
Margarete / your ashen hair Sulamith"—was used as the title of two paintings,
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The poem repeats many of the images of the first section, but with some changes of word-order. The golden hair of
Margarete is now
438:
232:), which Celan would almost certainly have read. Though the two poems have so many elements in common, the tone and form of "
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304:, there is no literal manner of reproducing the musical form of fugue in words; the title must therefore be taken as a
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with "your ashen hair
Sulamith", and "he" now grabs his gun, and is described as blue-eyed, while issuing his orders.
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Paul Celan – "Black Milk" ("Todesfuge"), an
English translation read aloud by the translator, Gerald Duffy
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The recurrent themes, encoded content and dialogic constructions demonstrate Celan's tendencies towards
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The exact date of composition of the poem is not known; a date of 1944 or 1945 seems to be most likely.
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1064:"Anselm Kiefer and the Art of Allusion: Dialectics of the Early 'Margaret' and 'Sulamith' Paintings"
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423:; the setting also contains hints of the poem's original tango associations. The German composer
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Olschner, Leonard (1989). "Fugal provocation in Paul Celan's 'Todesfuge' and 'Engführung'", in
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450:("Death is a master from Germany)" has been used in songs, often in altered form, e.g. by the
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The poem contains direct references, or apparent references, to other contemporary works. The
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Forstner, Leonard (1985). "'Todesfuge': Paul Celan, Immanuel
Weissglas and the Psalmist", in
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contains "Der Tod ist ein
Meister aus Thüringen"). The poem is used in a song by German
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with Celan's parents, who told Celan of his parents' deaths and their circumstances. "
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on celan-projekt website, accessed 2 July 2014; Forster (1985), p. 1, pp. 6–7
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in that phrases are repeated and recombined, comparably to the musical genre.
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composed and performed a version for voice and piano, on her 2003 live album
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Forster (1985), p. 11, pp. 17–18; for a translation of the Heine poem see
403:" has been set as a musical work by, among others, the American composers
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is more complex. Written in the early 1940s (the exact date is unknown), "
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370:'s poem "The Slave Ship" being forced to dance by the mercenary captain.
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counterpose "your golden hair Margarete/your ashen hair Sulamith."
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357:" being forced to make music and dance for "Him" also recall the
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German language poem written by the Romanian-born poet Paul Celan
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889:, site of Milken Archive of Jewish music, accessed 5 July 2014.
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image of "black milk" appeared in a poem published in 1939 by
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Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation.
1111:"Paul Celan's 'Todesfuge': Translation and Interpretation"
1042:"Manifestations of the Holocaust: Interpreting Paul Celan"
315:; the poem is structured to give a strong impression of
263:" was first published in a Romanian translation titled "
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Ein Meister aus Deutschland: Heidegger und seine Zeit.
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Dichtung wider Dichtung: Paul Celan und die Literatur
202:". Weissglas (1920–1979) was like Celan, a native of
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1037:, (October 1985), Vol 39, Issue 1, pp. 1–20.
427:has written a version for mixed choir, organ and
998:"Paul Celan's 'Todesfuge': A New Interpretation"
807:, Music and the Holocaust, accessed 6 July 2014.
336:, whilst "Shulamith" (the female version of the
1004:, (October 1967), Vol. 82/4, pp. 472–477.
340:name Solomon), is a figure who appears in the
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1117:, (January 1974), Vol. 89/1, pp. 85–96.
479:, "Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland".
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1048:(Winter 1972), Vol. 46/1, pp. 25–30.
415:and the Israeli composer Leon Shidlovsky.
1070:(winter 2006) Vol. 58/1, pp. 24–43.
925:"Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland"
726:
552:
1059:, (October 1989) Vol. 43, Issue 1, 79–89
421:Pulse Shadows: Meditations on Paul Celan
1128:Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
968:Paul Celan: Studies in His Early Poetry
714:
537:
520:, created in 1981 by the German artist
447:der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland
296:, 30 June 1942: an orchestra of inmates
833:German Poetry in Transition, 1945-1990
779:Recording of Celan reading "Todesfuge"
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605:"German literature – The 20th Century"
419:has set the poem as part of his cycle
361:being asked by their captors to sing (
1079:Anselm Kiefer: Works on Paper in the
7:
1019:. New Haven: Yale University Press.
124:Origins, composition and publication
805:"The Concentration and Death Camps"
351:gaolers. However, the victims in "
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48:family in Cernăuți, Romania (now
152:Rose Ausländer (photo from 1939)
1017:Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor, Jew
666:Cited in Forster (1985), p. 10
439:Defixiones: Will and Testament
300:Although the work is titled a
1:
1327:Conversation in the Mountains
1099:Munich: Carl Hansler Verlag.
294:Mauthausen Concentration camp
1085:New York: Harry Abrams Inc.
898:Whitall 92003), pp. 159–165.
508:Dein goldenes Haar Margarete
491:involved with the Nazi party
244:" are completely different.
115:Fourth section (lines 27–36)
94:Second section (lines 10–18)
1095:Safranski, Rüdiger (1994).
877:entry, accessed 6 July 2014
516:Dein aschenes Haar Sulamith
497:Ein Meister aus Deutschland
394:" (the German Parliament).
106:Third section (lines 19–26)
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1155:"Death Fugue", "Todesfuge"
1081:Metropolitan Museum of Art
759:Olschner (1989), pp. 79–80
696:Forster (1985), p. 1, p. 3
679:Die Todesfuge – Entstehung
1399:Poems about the Holocaust
1124:Whittall, Arnold (2003).
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1234:Von Schwelle zu Schwelle
1109:Weimar, Karl S. (1974).
982:. Göttingen: Wallstein.
865:Rosenthal (1999), p. 88.
830:Charlotte Melin (1999).
485:titled his biography of
131:Endlösung der Judenfrage
70:Schwarze Milch der Frühe
1121:, accessed 2 July 2014.
1119:(subscription required)
1077:Rosenthal, Nan (1999).
1074:, accessed 2 July 2014.
1072:(subscription required)
1057:German Life and Letters
1052:, accessed 2 July 2014.
1050:(subscription required)
1035:German Life and Letters
1008:, accessed 2 July 2014.
1006:(subscription required)
996:Duroche, L. L. (1967).
914:, accessed 6 July 2014.
820:(accessed 5 July 2014).
705:Forster (1985), pp. 3–4
610:Encyclopædia Britannica
575:Duroche (1967), p. 472.
224:Gottes Mühlen in Berlin
1218:Der Sand aus den Urnen
1068:Comparative Literature
953:Roos (2006), pp. 27–8.
750:Olschner (1989), p. 79
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359:exiled Jews in Babylon
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1040:Glenn, Jerry (1972).
966:Bekker, Hugo (2008).
836:. UPNE. pp. 7–.
648:Weimar (1974), p. 88.
630:Weimar (1974), p. 91.
292:
230:God's Mills in Berlin
167:The relationship of "
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1404:Poetry by Paul Celan
970:. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
794:Weimar (1974), p. 93
768:Weimar (1974), p. 93
657:Forster (1985), p. 1
593:Glenn (1972), p. 25.
584:Weimar (1974), p. 86
425:Hans-Jürgen von Bose
1335:The Meridian Speech
1226:Mohn und Gedächtnis
856:Roos (2006), p. 29.
417:Harrison Birtwistle
278:Mohn und Gedächtnis
204:Cernăuți/Czernowitz
458:(their 2005 album
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181:Immanuel Weissglas
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1134:978-0-521-01668-1
1105:978-3-446-24659-1
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989:978-3-8353-0080-4
843:978-0-87451-915-0
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1150:(in German)
1147:"Todesfuge"
686:(in German)
464: [
452:Black Metal
444:The phrase
413:György Kósa
375:hermeticism
184: [
179:" (HIM) by
35:-born poet
1389:1947 poems
1383:Categories
1290:Zeitgehöft
1282:Schneepart
1274:Lichtzwang
1203:Paul Celan
528:References
489:, who was
248:wrote of "
158:oxymoronic
50:Chernivtsi
37:Paul Celan
29:Deathfugue
1309:Todesfuge
1258:Atemwende
461:Hexenhaus
400:Todesfuge
392:Bundestag
381:Influence
363:Psalm 137
354:Todesfuge
260:Todesfuge
251:Todesfuge
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170:Todesfuge
42:Holocaust
23:Todesfuge
1353:Group 47
1015:(1995).
978:(2006).
875:WorldCat
616:24 April
456:Eisregen
429:baritone
306:metaphor
208:Bukovina
33:Romanian
1346:Related
1330:(prose)
1167:YouTube
960:Sources
930:YouTube
908:Details
784:YouTube
321:trochee
238:" and "
206:in the
138:to the
62:Summary
1338:(talk)
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1301:Poems
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1044:, in
1000:, in
934:Slime
551:, in
533:Notes
477:Slime
475:band
468:]
333:Faust
312:Tango
302:fugue
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134:(The
88:Rüden
75:fugue
1130:ISBN
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