Paul Celan (born Paul Antesche) was born in Romania in 1920. He was raised in a Jewish family speaking Romanian, French, and Russian. When World War II began, his family was deported to the Nazi labor camps where they perished. Celan himself was imprisoned as well, but eventually escaped and joined the Red Army. At the end of the war, he moved to Bucharest where he worked as a reader and translator at a publishing house. He began publishing his own works as well, writing under various pseudonyms (Celan was his favorite). Celan’s first book was published to no acclaim whatsoever in 1947; however, his sophomore effort, Mohn und Gedaechtnis (Poppy and Memory), garnered much critical attention. In the 1960s, he published more than six books of poetry and continued translating works by the likes of Henri Michaux, Osip Mandelstam, Rene Char, Paul Valéry, and Fernando Pessoa. Celan committed suicide in 1970. “Fugue of Death” is perhaps his most famous poem and intimately describes the experience of the concentration camps.

Fugue of Death (translated by Christopher Middleton)

Black milk of daybreak we drink it at nightfall

we drink it at noon in the morning we drink it at night

we drink it and drink it

we are digging a grave in the sky it is ample to lie there

A man in the house he plays with the serpents he writes

he writes when the night falls to Germany your golden

hair Margarete

he writes it and walks from the house the stars glitter he

whistles his dogs up

he whistles his Jews out and orders a grave to be dug in

the earth

he commands us strike up for the dance

Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night

we drink you in the morning at noon we drink you at

nightfall

drink you and drink you

A man in the house he plays with the serpents he writes

he writes when the night falls to Germany your golden

hair Margarete

Your ashen hair Shulamith we are digging a grave in the

sky it is

ample to lie there

He shouts stab deeper in earth you there and you others

you sing and you play

he grabs at the iron in his belt and swings it and blue are

his eyes

stab deeper your spades you there and you others play on

for the dancing

Black milk of daybreak we drink you at nightfall

we drink you at noon in the mornings we drink you at

nightfall

drink you and drink you

a man in the house your golden hair Margarete

your ashen hair Shulamith he plays with the serpents

He shouts play sweeter death's music death comes as a

master from Germany

he shouts stroke darker the strings and as smoke you

shall climb to the sky

then you'll have a grave in the clouds it is ample to lie

there

Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night

we drink you at noon death comes as a master from

Germany

we drink you at nightfall and morning we drink you and

drink you

a master from Germany death comes with eyes that are

blue

with a bullet of lead he will hit in the mark he will hit

you

a man in the house your golden hair Margarete

he hunts us down with his dogs in the sky he gives us a

grave

he plays with the serpents and dreams death comes as a

master from Germany

your golden hair Margarete

your ashen hair Shulamith.