Death fugue is arguably the most powerful poem written by paul celan, a romanian jew whose true surname was antschel. It is where the patent and incontrovertible intersects with the ineffable and incommensurable. Paul celans todesfuge holocaust and genocide studies. Readers focused upon its artfulness, often ignoring its subject, the nazi death camps and genocide. The peerless translations of this haunted and haunting holocaust poet, including ten new poems and an illuminating essay by the translator. Paul celan 23 november 1920 20 april 1970 cernauti, bukovin chernivtsi, ukraine death fugue. 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. A fugue is a type of instrumental music originating in germany, and it was played as a prelude to an unspeakable act of mass killing. Other readers will always be interested in your opinion of the books youve read. The poem begins repeating itself this is the fugue form.
Marguerite is compared with shulamith, a symbol for a jewish feminine ideal. 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. Death fugue black milk of daybreak we drink it at evening we drink it at midday and morning we drink it at night we drink and we drink we shovel a grave in the. Consider the fateful paradoxes of exile that haunted this poets fragile yet tenacious lifework.
Fugue of death by paul celan poems academy of american. Todesfuge, fugue of death or deathfugue 19445 in its way the guernica of. A fugue is a musical piece that begins with some theme and then comes back to that theme several times, with variations. Paul celans poetry has special value, as someone who came close to death in world war ii german concentration camps and labour camps, but su r vived t o become one of th e greatest of the. Pdf translation comparison implications of the lexical and. Paul celan page a new paul celan bilingual english and german web page. Whether youve loved the book or not, if you give your honest and detailed thoughts then people will find new books that are right for them. Death fugue by paul celan free download as word doc. It is among celan s most wellknown and oftenanthologized poems. Adorno, celan, and poetry after auschwitz comparative.
He also repeats incessantly, as if to suggest an urgent need to fill the void of death. Black milk of daybreak we drink it at sundownwe drink it at noon in the morning we drink it at nightwe drink it and drink it. Poet, survivor, jew by john felstiner, professor emeritus of english at stanford university and author of many standard works on paul celan, we learn p. Death fugue was a poem originally written in german todesfuge by paul celan about jewish prisoners at nazi concentration camps. Black milk in death fugue perspectives in 20th century. Poetry is the meeting point of parallel linesin infinity, but also in the here and now. Translation comparison implications of the lexical and syntactic differences of paul celans todesfuge death fugue translation the third stanza. In 1938 celan went to paris to study medicine, but returned to romania before the outbreak of world war ii. His surname was later spelled ancel, and he eventually adopted the anagram celan as his pen name. This fugue of death exerts a macabre fascination, the fascination of the nazi death camps and the appalling disintegration of value. He is known mostly for death fugue, the poem most associated with the shoah. Paul celan, a germanlanguage poet born in rumania in 1920, wrote todesfuge deathfugue in 1944.
Born paul antschel in 1920 to a prosperous jewish family in bukovina grimly ceded to romania in 1940, he adopted the name celan after his labor camp youth in romania his parents were deported and killed in the death camps. A man lives in the house he plays with the serpents he. Paul celans holocaust poem suffocates in the black smoke rising from the. During the 1950s and 1960s, the poem received widespread notoriety in german media and textbooks. Death is a gangboss aus deutschland his eye is blue he shoots you with leaden bullets his aim is true. John felstiner, a translation of todesfuge by paul celan. In fact after a while he refused permission to use the poem in anthologies. Yet i reserve continuously a smoldering desire to put more time into better translating some of his most important work, such as the chilling todesfuge death fugue scroll down for english translation. Paul celans death fugue paul celans holocaust poem suffocates in the black smoke rising from the crematoriums chimneys, shrouding inmates as well as survivors consciousness, including daily rituals as simple as drinking milk. Some people prefer a translation of the original title in romanian, death tango. But my paper aims at not merely locating celan as a germanlanguage poet of the postsecond world war period, but also as a jew, and a survivor of the holocaust the nazi. Some of the post war poets we studied, like paul celan, are seared so boldly into me that i often cannot touch even the memory. Todesfuge is a german language poem written by the romanianborn poet paul celan.
Paul celans experiences as a germanromanian jew during world war ii form the basis for his spare, devastating poems. Paul antschel, who wrote under the pseudonym paul celan, was born in czernovitz, in romania, on november 23, 1920. The death fugue version is the english translation of the poem, the most credible and notorious translation performed by john. Interestingly, the first version of death fugue ever printed was a romanian translation, approved by paul celan, under the title tangoul mortii or death tango. Technical analysis of deathfugue literary devices and the technique of paul celan. Paul celan deathfugue black milk of daybreak we drink it at evening we drink it at midday and morning we drink it at night we drink and we drink we shovel a grave in the air there you wont lie too cramped a man lives in the house he plays with his vipers he writes he writes when it grows dark to deutschland your golden hair margareta. Death fugue from german death fugue by paul celan translated by a. The split this rock poetry festival series features segmented video clips of internationally recognized poets from all over the world.
Deathfugue and other poems literary elements gradesaver. Paul celan s death fugue was originally written in romanian in 1944, put in its final form in 1945, then translated into german in 1948, the date of its first publication. Death fugue quickly became one of the most anthologized german poems of the 1950s and early 60s and a standard item in german school text books. Black milk of daybreak we drink it at sundown we drink it at noon in the morning we drink it at night we drink it and drink it we dig a grave in the breezes there one lies unconfined a man lives in the house he plays with the serpents he writes. The poem, when written in its original romanian tongue, was called death tango but when celan translated it into german, the title became deathfugue. Roughly speaking, the poem describes the experience of the holocaust, from one of. Hamburgers translations are excellent, probably the best that will ever come about in english given the concise nature of paul celan s poetry. Project muse selected poems and prose of paul celan, and. Paul celan 1920 1970, one of the most important germanlanguage poets, was born in 1920 as paul antschel into a germanspeaking jewish family in cernauti, northern bukovina, a region then part of romania. Milk is normally white, and black milk seems vile it connotes sickness, or death. The clips in this series were shot in washington dc during. However, formatting rules can vary widely between applications and fields of interest or study. Paul celan is one the twentieth centurys most essential poets, and twentytwo years after its publication, poems of paul celan continues to be the single truest access for englishspeakers to this poets work.
I had difficulty deciding what the black milk was, but have come up with a couple of interpretations. Black milk of morning we drink you at dusktime we drink you at noontime and dawntime we drink you at night we drink. In the research i did while preparing discussion questions for paul celan s death fugue, i discovered the poem was not just in response to celan s own traumatic memories of the holocaust, but was also meant as a direct response to famed germanjewish philosopher theodor adorno who claimed shortly after wwii that writing poetry after. Adornos famous but often misunderstood claim that to write poetry after auschwitz is barbaric and considers adornos subsequent reflections on the issue of art and suffering, particularly in relationship to paul celan s early poem todesfuge death fugue.
Death fugue by paul celan poems academy of american poets. The poem is a haunting depiction of a nazi death camp, stark and gritty, and pulls no punches. It remains a difficult poem to translate into english. It can be as complicated as mallarme or paul celan, or as simple as heine or verlaine, but something about it.
The son of germanspeaking jews, celan grew up speaking several languages, including romanian, russian, and french. Todesfuge translated into english as death fugue1 and fugue of death2 is a german language poem written by the romanianborn poet. He was born as paul antschel to a jewish family in cernau. Czernowitz, in the then kingdom of romania now chernivtsi, ukraine, and adopted the pseudonym paul celan. In its german version the poem has become widely known and is frequently invoked as a principal instance of. Even in the early fugue death, of his most famous and most widely anthologized poem, the personal anguish is transposed into distancing imagery and a musical structure so in tricate that a kind of terrible beauty is wrested from the ugly theme. A disturbing parallel exists between celans death fugue and.
He was born as paul antschel into a jewish family in romania, and changed his name to paul celan where celan in romanian would be pronounced chelan, and was derived from ancel. Black milk of daybreak we drink it at sundown we drink it at noon in the morning we drink it at night we drink it and drink it we dig. He also beats the jewish prisoners and makes some of them play music while the others work. Paul celan was born paul antschel in czernovitz, romania, to a germanspeaking jewish family. Deathfugue and other poems essays are academic essays for citation. Celan is a anagram of ancel, which is the romanian translation of his name. Themes from nazi rule are particularly reflected in his work. Todesfuge translated into english as death fugue and fugue of death is a german language poem written by the romanianborn poet paul celan probably around 1945 and first published in 1948. Although difficult in places, the article clarifies many of celan s concerns as a poet. Paul celans parents both were murdered in a concentration camp. Poppy and memory is perhaps the bestknown poem of the entire postwar period. Paul celan s poem todesfuge is a strangely haunting work. It was published in 1948 but was said to have been written a few years earlier.
Galway kinnell reads todesfuge death fugue by paul celan. Trauma and its traces in the poetry of paul celan semanti nandi paul celan 19201970 was one of the most eminent european poets of the second half of the twentieth century. This is all the more noteworthy a revocation of language as we understand its workings, since one of the most prominent and productive passages in celan s poetry is the metaphor, in fugue of death. It combines mysteriously compelling imagery with rhythmic variations and structural patterns that are both elusive and pronounced. Paul celan and the meaning of language an interview with. He is now associated with the phrase death is a master from germany, and in his orders. Abstract paul celan, a germanlanguage poet born in rumania in 1920, wrote. Paul celan s fugue of death fugue of death black milk of daybreak we drink it at nightfall we drink it at noon in the morning we drink it at night 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. The son of germanspeaking jews, celan grew up speaking several languages. In the writing of paul celan even we readers who can hear poe. Todesfuge translated into english as death fugue 1 and fugue of death 2 is a german language poem written by the romanianborn poet paul celan probably around 1945 and first published in 1948. Todesfuge death fuge paul celan english recital poem.
Todesfuge explained translated into english as death fugue and fugue of death is a german language poem written by the romanianborn poet paul celan probably around 1945 and first published in 1948. Its jewish author, paul celan, was born in czernovitz, now rumania, in 1912, when it was part of the austrohungarian empire, and german is his native tongue. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of deathfugue and other poems by paul celan. Todesfuge by paul celan with translation alices notes from. Michael hamburgers english versions follow all the subtleties of the. Black milk of daybreak we drink it at nightfall we drink it at noon in the morning we drink it at night drink it and drink. Veja mais ideias sobre sagarana, escritor e arte contemporanea. Todnautberg pierre joris, one of the premier celan scholars and translators, discusses celan s poem, todnautberg. His works are characterised by an unflinching willingness to confront his cultures dark past, and unrealised potential, in works that are often. I was particularly struck by the recurring imagery of black milk in death fugue by paul celan.
His poem todesfuge, or death fugue, written at the age of twentythree, in chernovtsy, was first published in bucharest under celan s first title of the poem, todestango, or tango of death, in a romanian translation, tangoul mortii, from the german. Paul celan s parents both were murdered in a concentration camp. In 1938 celan went to paris to study medicine, but returned to romania before. Foreman black milk of daybreak we drink it come evening we drink it come midday come morning we drink it come night we drink it and drink it we spade out a grave in the air there it wont feel so tight.