DEATH FUGUE

Summary

This guide is based on the 1959 edition by American poet and translator Jerome Rothenberg
(b. 1931).

The poem describes a concentration camp officer ordering Jewish prisoners to play music
while others dig graves.

Stanza 1

The first stanza opens with the image of "black milk of morning," a grotesque rather than
nourishing drink the prisoners have over and over throughout the day. The repetition of drink
suggests an inescapable oppressive horror that the prisoners—the collective speakers of the
poem—must face. The prisoners "scoop out a grave in the sky," where they will not have to
lie so closely together. The poem then introduces the character of the officer, who keeps
snakes and writes. The word used in the original German is spielt (plays) with snakes, which
closely mirrors the sound of schlagen (snakes) and schreibt (write). The officer writes to
"Deutschland" (Germany) as if it were a person and to "your golden hair Margareta."
Margareta evokes the love interest in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's early 19th-century play
Faust, one of the most famous works in the German literary canon.

The officer walks from the house and stars start flashing, indicating night but also suggesting
the Star of David symbol that was used to identify Jewish prisoners. He whistles for his dogs
and the Jewish prisoners, and the language of both is mirrored. (In German, the word for
dogs is Ruden and for Jews, Juden.) The officer then orders the prisoners to begin digging a
grave in the earth, mirroring the language of the grave in the sky. He commands the
speakers to play for the dance while the others dig.

Stanza 2

The second stanza opens with the same image of black milk, repeating the first three lines of
the first stanza. The times the prisoners drink, however, have shifted in order; now and for
the rest of the poem, the drinking begins at night. The lines introducing the officer repeat as
well, but the line about "your golden hair Margareta" is now paired with "your ashen hair
Shulamite" in the next line. Shulamite is the female protagonist in the Song of Songs in the
Hebrew Bible and is considered the ideal of Jewish femininity. Also, the original German
spellings, "Margarete" and "Sulamith," are a near rhyme. Shulamite's line blurs into a
repetition of the line about the grave in the sky, with her ashen hair reminiscent of ash and
smoke (many victims of the Holocaust were cremated rather than buried). The officer then
commands some of the prisoners to dig while commanding others to "sing and play." He tugs
his sword and swings it. The stanza calls attention to the officer's blue eyes, which, like
Margareta's golden hair, reflect the Nazi conception of racial purity. He repeats his command
to dig while the others play for the dance.
Stanza 3

The third stanza begins by again repeating the first three lines of the poem, with the times
again shuffled. The images of golden-haired Margareta and ashen-haired Shulamite,
repeated here, are intertwined with the image of the snakes associated with the German
officer.

Stanza 4

The fourth stanza breaks from pattern established by the first three stanzas. It opens with
the German officer telling the prisoners to "play that death thing more sweetly." Death is
personified as a gang-boss (in the original German, Meister or "master") in Germany. He
tells them to play the fiddle "more darkly" and then "hover like smoke," an allusion to the
crematoria of the extermination camps. Then he repeats the line from the first stanza about a
roomy grave in the sky. With the officer now delivering the line as a command, the image
takes on an air of menace.

Stanza 5

As the poem heads toward its conclusion, phrases from previous stanzas weave together in
increasingly disjointed ways. The familiar refrain of black milk intertwines with "Death is a
gang-boss aus Deutschland," implying death as a constant repetition much like the constant
drinking of the black milk. "Death is a gang-boss aus Deutschland" is paired with "his eye is
blue," tying the officer to Death, and Death to the Nazi racial ideal. Then prisoners are shot.
The way in which it is phrased—"he shoots you"—leaves it unclear whether it was the officer
or Death himself who did the shooting and whether that distinction has any meaning. The
shooter's aim, however, is unerring. Notably, the pronouns shift in this moment of death from
"we" to "you," though it returns to "we" in the next line. The refrain about the house and
Margareta is repeated as the officer sets his dogs on the other prisoners, giving them "a
grave in the sky." The officer is once again described as cultivating snakes, and he dreams
that Death again is a gang-boss "aus Deutschland."

Stanza 6

The poem ends in the sixth stanza with just two lines that repeat of "your golden hair
Margareta" and "your ashen hair Shulamite," the representatives of German and Jewish
identity.

Analysis

Poetry as a Response to Atrocity

In 1949 German cultural critic Theodor Adorno (1903–1969) wrote, "to write poetry after
Auschwitz is barbaric." While his opinions on the matter were more complex and evolved
over his lifetime, this often-cited dictum provides an important entry point to discussing
poems such as "Death Fugue." How should readers approach poetry about one of the most
intense genocides in human history, and what are the potential effects of such artistic
endeavors? Many people beyond Adorno have argued that representing the horrors of the
Holocaust in poetry and fiction cheapens the real suffering both of those who survived and
those who died. Even presented in facts and numbers, the scope of the Holocaust is difficult
to comprehend and, for many, no art could ever do justice to the scale of the tragedy. This is
often considered particularly true of art produced by people who were not there.

However, others have used art, poetry, and fiction as a way to grapple with pain, grief, and
despair that defy the limits of normal language. Poets and writers have delved into not only
the events of the Holocaust, but the lasting effects on those who survived. They have used
literature to explore questions of identity in a world in which the Holocaust was perpetrated.
Paul Celan himself, who lost his parents to the Holocaust along with countless members of
his community, called "Death Fugue" "an epitaph and a grave." "Death Fugue" contains
elements that are horrific, as well as elements of genuine art and skillful composition. It is
impossible to engage with the beauty of the poem without engaging with the suffering that is
its subject matter. The poem is at once a general comment on events and a work that must
be understood in relation to personal tragedy.

Repetition and Juxtaposition

"Death Fugue" is a poem in the style of a type of musical composition called a fugue. Most
associated with the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), a fugue
introduces multiple musical themes or motifs and then repeats and recombines them. These
subtle changes and juxtapositions (setting elements next to each other to change the
audience's reaction) place the elements in different contexts, thereby altering their impact
and meaning. In "Death Fugue" very few elements occur only once. The image of "black milk
of morning" drunk throughout the day establishes an initial tone of grim, grinding monotony,
rotting, and death. But it also sets an initial pace. As the lines repeat, with the times altered,
the poem feels as if it gains speed. This is especially true when the motif of black milk is
combined with the motif of Death as a gang-boss. The daily suffering of the prisoners is
made worse by the ever presence of death in the camp, yet they drink, and they live another
day. The officer's snakes establish an initial sense of menace, but their addition to other
images, particularly Shulamite's hair, gives the sense of them creeping through and invading
every space. Shulamite herself is introduced first as a contrast to Margareta. But as her
image is used next to graves and smoke, she symbolically takes on the tragedy of the camp.

By the end of the poem, without greatly altering any single motif, images have become
intimately interwoven with one another in a way that creates a surreal feeling of fear,
disorientation, and dread. The officer and his blue eyes are now, through repetition and
juxtaposition, inextricably tied to Death, which is personified as a German gang-boss.
Shulamite's ashen hair is the smoke of burning corpses.

Identity and Other

Issues of identity and classification run throughout "Death Fugue." Celan was a
German-speaking Jewish man who survived the Holocaust, or Shoah. He was well read and
well educated, later working as a professor of German literature. He had an understanding of
German culture likely far beyond most native-born Germans. However, the central core of
Nazi ideology was the unshakable belief that to be German was a racial designation. This
was reinforced by a strict system of behaviors and political loyalties and tied to a destiny to
subdue and subjugate all other people. Within this framework, Jewish people were not—and
could never be—German, and this conviction was intimately tied to the violence perpetrated
against them. Throughout his life, Celan, like other poets who survived the Holocaust,
struggled with the question of writing in a language that had been so tied to genocide.

Issues of identity emerge most strongly with the parallel images of Margareta and Shulamite.
Golden-haired Margareta evokes the redemptive love interest in the classic 19th-century
play Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. As such, she is a symbol not only of Aryan
racial purity, but of the ideal of Germany itself, tied up in poetry and art. The officer writes to
her as he writes to Deutschland. Shulamite, by contrast, is the name ascribed to the female
protagonist of the book Song of Songs in the Hebrew Bible, a book of sacred love poetry.
She is also idealized, but recognizably Jewish by her name and darker, ashen hair. The two
images are presented in parallel and near rhyme, implying similarity, but the rules of the
camp divide the two violently. Shulamite is juxtaposed with ash and graves, while Margareta
is associated with Deutschland. The division between a group to which the officer assigns
value and one he does not is precisely what allows for the genocide.

The officer is also presented as a singular character, though he stands in for an entire
apparatus. The prisoners, by contrast, are presented as a collective. This works in two
important ways. The prisoners, who narrate the poem, use the term we, indicating a
community and a group with common values and experience. The officer, by contrast, is
referred to as he, someone outside the group. However, it also emphasizes the implied
perspective of the officer that the prisoners are an undifferentiated mass, while he is a
valuable individual. Further, he is an individual with great power over the collective.

On a structural level, the poem deftly uses the German language and the structure of a
musical style closely tied to a genius German composer. This both complicates the poem
and presents an ambivalent sensation. On the one hand, the language and the music are
instruments of menace and violence within the poem. On the other hand, they frame the
entire piece and make the communication of the ideas possible. They are elements that are,
in a sense, contested between the poet and the officer, both of whom have a claim on them.

Poetry in Translation

"Death Fugue" was originally composed in German, and important aspects of rhythm, sound,
and connotation do not completely translate into English. While this is a potential problem
with any work in translation, it is especially difficult for a work as highly stylized and
linguistically focused as "Death Fugue."

Symbols

Black Milk
In the Old Testament book Exodus, God promises the Jewish people "a land of milk and
honey." The black milk represents the suffering and oppression they experience as prisoners
in the camp, deported from their homes—the opposite of a promised land. Though the black
milk is repulsive rather than nourishing, the prisoners drink it constantly, throughout all hours
of the day, because there is nothing else. Black is also the color of grief and death. The
repetition of this symbol establishes an early, foreboding tone of misery and monotony.

Blue Eyes

Death and the officer both have blue eyes. The blue eyes, like Margareta's hair, are a visual
symbol of membership in the Nazis' idealized racial hierarchy. They stand in for the entire
Nazi project of racial purity, the end result of which is the genocide of the prisoners.

Margareta and Shulamite

Margareta and Shulamite are both idealized female figures representing respectively the
German and Jewish people. Margareta is an allusion to the romantic interest of the main
character in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's (1749–1832) tragic play Faust, one of the
premier works of the German literary canon. Her character is an innocent German village girl
whom Faust—who has made a deal with the devil—seduces and ruins. However, her
forgiveness grants them both admittance to the highest levels of heaven. Shulamite is the
female protagonist of the Hebrew Bible's Song of Songs, a series of poetic declarations of
love between a man and a woman.

The images of Margareta and Shulamite appear side by side in the poem, and they
represent both a common ground and a stark contrast between the guard and the prisoners.
As idealized feminine loves, they evoke a common humanity, but their contrast takes on a
sinister edge. Margareta's gold hair is a Nazi racial ideal, and her purity and protection are
causes the officer would cite as a reason for his murderous behavior. Shulamite, by contrast,
has characteristically darker hair that links her with the Jewish prisoners. But by describing
her hair as ashen, Celan links it with the smoke from the crematoria. The image of Shulamite
is also juxtaposed with graves, while Margareta is mentioned next to Deutschland. Though
the two images are parallel, the Nazi ideology and the violence of the Holocaust render them
irreconcilable.

Snakes

The officer cultivates snakes in his house. In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, the snake
symbolizes evil. While snakes can be a symbol of death and rebirth, they often represent
menace, poison, and inhumanity. They embody the cruelty the officer inflicts upon others,
and he feeds and nourishes them with his ideology. They are the counterpoint to his ideas
about high culture and purity.

Themes

1. Holocaust

In "Death Fugue," Paul Celan, a survivor of the Holocaust, uses imagery and poetic
language to try to comprehend and convey the enormity of suffering in the concentration
camps. Through constant repetition and a surreal recombination of images, the poem
transcends its individual incident to give an impression of murder upon murder in a
ceaseless procession of deliberate genocide.
Since records of the Holocaust have become available to the world at large, there has been
a debate about the proper ways to memorialize it. The question of whether art can be made
in response to the Holocaust has persisted. Celan's early work, including "Death Fugue,"
grappled extensively with the Holocaust. Most of his work also dealt with his deep
ambivalence about the German language as both his mother tongue and the language of
genocide.

"Death Fugue" sets allusions to high culture, including the poem's form as a translation of a
musical style most associated with German composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685–1750), against the brutality and horror of the death camps. The poem alludes
frequently to the racist ideology the Nazi regime used to justify the Holocaust, drawing a
clear contrast between Margareta and Shulamite as idealized representatives of Aryan and
Jewish women, respectively. The camp officer and, later, Death both have blue eyes. The
smoke of crematoria and graves in both the earth and the sky dominate the landscape of the
poem and seep into other symbols. Rather than dealing in the hard numbers and facts of the
Holocaust, "Death Fugue" uses impressions and allusions to convey the grief and horror of
the situation in a way objective data cannot.

2. Culture

The officer has a pretense to high culture that defines his character. He dreams and he
writes. He romanticizes Germany, and he forces the prisoners to play music.

There is a typical understanding of culture as a civilizing force on humanity, but "Death

Fugue" shows a situation in which the opposite is the case. The Germany of the officer's
imagination—populated by loving, forgiving, blonde Margaretas—is his motivation for the
atrocities he commits. He calls for music even as he commits murder. That he cultivates
snakes—symbolic of evil in the Jewish and Christian traditions—and writes are facts
presented together and given equal weight. Both are parts of who and what he is. The
Jewish prisoners, by contrast, have their own image, not unlike his Margareta. Shulamite,
however, is increasingly associated with ash and graves as these dominate the psychic
landscape of the poem.

The poem's structure mimics the form of a fugue, and this also plays into the theme of
culture as complicit in the atrocities of the Holocaust. Like the music played during the
execution, it is a beautiful form mixed with a horrific subject.

3. Cruelty

Outside of the enormous scope of the Holocaust itself, "Death Fugue" carries a theme of the
smaller, personal cruelty displayed by the officer to the prisoners. He treats their suffering
almost festively and asks them to play "for the dance" when what they are preparing for is an
execution—quite possibly their own.

The officer views the Jewish prisoners as something less than human, which allows him to
ignore and even take pleasure in their misery. The way he treats them is paralleled with the
way he summons the dogs, and his calls to play more sweetly and more darkly mock them
at their most vulnerable. The camp is not merely a place where the prisoners are killed; it is
a place where their misery is deliberately increased for the amusement of their captors.

The theme of personal cruelty serves as a reminder that despite the enormous scale of the
Holocaust, every single action within it was carried out by the conscious choices of
individuals.