This play has some significance for remembering the lives lost in the Holocaust. This poem deals with the consequences of the horrors of the Holocaust. As well as its effects it had on the German people and victims. The poem’s theme is about the aftermath of the Holocaust and war.
The poem uses strong language such as “Black milk of dawn we drink at night we drink you at noon we drink you evenings we drink you and drink” Paul Celan (1948: 1) this is an interesting line talking about milk specifically. Milk is a source of life babies need for sustenance to survive, which could mean the victims of the Holocaust are latching onto any form of life. But the milk is described as black, tainted but still needed to survive. Almost repetitive with the word ‘drink’ which supports my idea of them latching onto life.
How one captures the horrors of the Holocaust in a poems baffles me. A truly devastating experience only true victims could bring into words, something the poet Celan does well with lines such as:
“He calls outplay death more sweetly death is a master from Deutschland he calls scrape those fiddles more darkly then as the smoke you’ll rise in the air then you’ll have a grave in the clouds there you’ll lie at ease.” Paul Celan (1948: 2) It almost describes death as something of a master in Deutschland in Germany. It talks about smoke in the idea of someone turning into it, ascending to a grave in the black clouds. It may be talking about bodies burning in furnaces ‘rising in the air then you’ll have a grave in the clouds’. Those words have a dark connection to furnace burnings in concentration camps, which shows the inhumane nature of the Nazi’s.
The poem continues with repetition talking about black milk, also repeating how death is a master in Deutschland. The next part could be talking about a nazi soldier taking the life of someone as it talks about a gun in his belt, for example :”He calls jab deeper into the earth you there and you other men sing and play he grabs the gun in his belt he draws it his eyes are blue jab deeper your spades you there and you other men continue to play for the dance” Paul Celan (1948: 4). When he mentions dance he may be trying to lift their unfortunate situation into a life force by turning it into a dance. Dance is an expression, living in a moment, living in general.
In my opinion, the words Celan used describing milk as black and the likeliness of death in Deutschland makes me as a reader sick to my stomach. The fact the victims of the Holocaust and the people had to deal with a tainted form of life. Which is symbolised as the black milk just gives me insight into a corruption of their lives, having to deal with Nazi warcrimes.
I also think Celan comparing Deutschland to death shows how much despair circualted around during the Holocaust. The black milk being a common theme throughout the poem. I believe it links back to the ash, and smoke of war and innocent bodies burning. The taint of war the soot and ash infects life which is represented as milk. It represents the stain of war in Germany, a toxic reality of the life they had to live with after all the horrors and blood that was spilt.
This poem linked interesting language to Germany’s suffering during the later war years. It described death, killing, and the corruption of life with the war in a creative way.
C.W. McGee star light blog. 