Paul Celan "Death Fugue" (Holocaust poem)

[MrsGamp]

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 air there you won't 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 Marguerite
he writes it and steps out of doors and the stars are all sparkling
he whistles his hounds to come close
he whistles his Jews into rows has them shovel a grave in the ground
he orders us strike up and play for the dance

Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night
we drink you at morning and midday we drink you at evening
we drink and we drink
A man lives in the house he plays with his vipers he writes
he writes when it grows dark to Deutschland your golden hair Margeurite
your ashen hair Shulamith we shovel a grave in the air there you won't lie too cramped
He shouts jab this earth deeper you lot there you others sing up and play
he grabs for the rod in his belt he swings it his eyes are blue
jab your spades deeper you lot there you others play on for the dancing

Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night
we drink you at midday and morning we drink you at evening
we drink and we drink
a man lives in the house your goldenes Haar Margeurite
your aschenes Haar Shulamith he plays with his vipers
He shouts play death more sweetly Death is a master from Deutschland
he shouts scrape your strings darker you'll rise then in smoke to the sky
you'll have a grave then in the clouds there you won't lie too cramped

Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night
we drink you at midday Death is a master aus Deutschland
we drink you at evening and morning we drink and we drink
this Death is ein Meister aus Deutschland his eye it is blue
he shoots you with shot made of lead shoots you level and true
a man lives in the house your goldenes Haar Margarete
he looses his hounds on us grants us a grave in the air
he plays with his vipers and daydreams
der Tod is ein Meister aus Deutschland
dein goldenes Haar Margarete
dein aschenes Haar Shulamith

Paul Celan​

 

[cduggles]

Great poem @MrsGamp. I’ve actually read part of it before in German, and it’s funny because I was thinking about it while reading this and then I came across the excerpt that I had read.

 

[bingey]

Yeah we read it in school most depressing poem ever

 

[MrsGamp]

it is of course ... not sure what the right word would be ... but not exactly "depressing" , if you mean it's just dismal, period. There's rage in it too.

 

[December Flower]

Fuck, isn't it enough that in Germany we have to learn this bullshit day in day out?
From 7th grade til 12th I had ONLY Nazi Germany in history classes. Hitler hitler hitler, I can't hear it anymore.
It's getting so fucking boring, why does the entire world have to be so fascinated with this? Not the first mass killing, not the first fascist country, not the first psychopath in power.
Is it so America has something to point at, saying "those were the bad guys", while they go ahead and slaughter millions of Civilians while pointing to the bad bad Germans? It's fucking annoying. Get a new hobby.

Sorry, the poem didn't suck the first 16 times I read it.

 

[MrsGamp]

I know what you mean ...

Firstly, I think in part, people are disturbed yet fascinated by Auschwitz as a sort of business model - the factory which makes death. The tragic element, the sense of good and evil, gets obscured by the utter banality of even the worst war criminals - we recognise that banal obligation to do your job, follow your orders, the cool professionalism, the demand for efficiency ...

maybe we are spooked becaue we realise that even though the best part of a century has gone by ... Auschwitz may not, as we're so often assured, be some freakish anomaly that can "never happen again".

The cop who murdered George Floyd doesn't look like a raving evil maniac .... he just looks like someone who is sure he knows what he's doing ... he's consumately "professional". Even hearing his victim plead for his life, beg for his mother will not make him less than utterly professional....

the SS ethos was the same, wasn't it?


Secondly, Hitler himself. He's a very odd character. People are fascinated by him ... he's still quite sensational to watch ...why?

Stalin was responsible for probably about 20 million unnecessary deaths, more than twice as many Holocaust victims, yet he just doesn't exert the same attraction.

The writer Martin Amis claims - and he may have something here - that it's something to do with Hitler's uncanny lack of ...well, any sort of recognisable sexuality.
That sound very weird ... but if you time watch this (it isn't long), and see what you think:

 

[ageingpartyfiend]

Fuck, isn't it enough that in Germany we have to learn this bullshit day in day out?
From 7th grade til 12th I had ONLY Nazi Germany in history classes. Hitler hitler hitler, I can't hear it anymore.
It's getting so fucking boring, why does the entire world have to be so fascinated with this? Not the first mass killing, not the first fascist country, not the first psychopath in power.
Is it so America has something to point at, saying "those were the bad guys", while they go ahead and slaughter millions of Civilians while pointing to the bad bad Germans? It's fucking annoying. Get a new hobby.

Sorry, the poem didn't suck the first 16 times I read it.

likely Germany has huge guilt issues and/or a collective trauma with a resulting hyper-vigilance to ensure that history doesn't repeat

it's unlikely that the USA has any say in German's history curriculum

 

[December Flower]

likely Germany has huge guilt issues and/or a collective trauma with a resulting hyper-vigilance to ensure that history doesn't repeat

it's unlikely that the USA has any say in German's history curriculum

I could have used a little less trauma growing up. We even went to Poland as a "school trip"(to 'celebrate' us passing our final exams, yay) to see Auschwitz and Treblinka. With Dachau & Flossenbürg that's 4 concentration camps I had to see.

Saved as: Experiences I didn't need.
The graphic explanations of the insides of the "Brausedusche"(Gas chamber, literally: "Sprinkle Shower", that's what the sign above the 'Gaskammer' said.) were gruesome.
"Oh this is where the victims tried to claw their way out of the room"
"Well the babies and small children weren't affected by the cyclone b as fast, so their head had to be smashed in on this wall"
These tours around the camps are just fucked up. Very informative, but.. well too informative.

The fuck. Getting nauseated just writing about it.

 

[MrsGamp]

I could have used a little less trauma growing up. We even went to Poland as a "school trip"(to 'celebrate' us passing our final exams, yay) to see Auschwitz and Treblinka. With Dachau & Flossenbürg that's 4 concentration camps I had to see.

Saved as: Experiences I didn't need.
The graphic explanations of the insides of the "Brausedusche"(Gas chamber, literally: "Sprinkle Shower", that's what the sign above the 'Gaskammer' said.) were gruesome.
"Oh this is where the victims tried to claw their way out of the room"
"Well the babies and small children weren't affected by the cyclone b as fast, so their head had to be smashed in on this wall"
These tours around the camps are just fucked up. Very informative, but.. well too informative.

The fuck. Getting nauseated just writing about it.

An ex of mine was Polish and had to do the same school trip to Auschwitz. He felt the same way as you do. In fact he thought it was on a level with child abuse. He was still haunted by the room withh the bags filled with human hair.
Btw how old were you when you had to it?

 

[December Flower]

An ex of mine was Polish and had to do the same school trip to Auschwitz. He felt the same way as you do. In fact he thought it was on a level with child abuse. He was still haunted by the room withh the bags filled with human hair.
Btw how old were you when you had to it?

I was 17 when I graduated, that's around the time we did that trip.

 

[MrsGamp]

I was 17 when I graduated, that's around the time we did that trip.

Shit ...this guy I knew was only TEN though!
It seems inappropriate to force anyone of any age to go to Auschwitz ...precisely BECAUSE they empathise with the victims. I am not at all sure I'd go.
I am sorry for young people from Germany, that this seems to be some sort of mandatory thing.
They should focus on making people who were supporters of the Nazis to go to Auschwitz - but I expect by now most of them are dead.

 

[December Flower]

Shit ...this guy I knew was only TEN though!
It seems inappropriate to force anyone of any age to go to Auschwitz ...precisely BECAUSE they empathise with the victims. I am not at all sure I'd go.
I am sorry for young people from Germany, that this seems to be some sort of mandatory thing.
They should focus on making people who were supporters of the Nazis to go to Auschwitz - but I expect by now most of them are dead.

I was at the Dachau concentration camp the first time with 12, so I can understand his experience sort of. But Auschwitz is a lot worse, I couldn't stomach it as an almost-adult.
Got to add that I have Aspergers, so at my age, my reaction was ofc a bit over the top, but I've seen Neurotypicals stay out of some rooms, or turn their faces from some of the things being showed to us.
We also had to view some short film with actual videofootage of Auschwitz, which was just ridiculously nauseating to watch, and I saw a lot of the "normal" kids not watching, especially the girls.

I would have really appreciated less trauma from this in my childhood. And I can imagine other Germans feel the same. All you learn is that you're basically a monster, because you're German, and they make it sound like no other country ever did anything like it. I think that's why so many Germans have to see this entire thing as a giant joke, so we don't think about it seriously. Hitler jokes are common conversation fodder here.