"Death Fugue" - Paul Celan. Elegy

Black milk of morning we drink you at dusktime
we drink you at noontime and dawntime we drink you at night
we drink and drink
we scoop out a grave in the sky where it’s roomy to lie
There’s a man in this house who cultivates snakes and who writes
who writes when it’s nightfall nach Deutschland your golden hair Margareta
he writes it and walks from the house and the stars all start flashing he whistles his dogs to draw near
whistles his Jews to appear starts us scooping a grave out of sand
he commands us to play for the dance

Black milk of morning we drink you at night
we drink you at dawntime and noontime we drink you at dusktime
we drink and drink
There’s a man in this house who cultivates snakes and who writes
who writes when it’s nightfall nach Deutschland your golden hair Margareta
your ashen hair Shulamite we scoop out a grave in the sky where it’s roomy to lie
He calls jab it deep in the soil you lot there you other men sing and play
he tugs at the sword in his belt he swings it his eyes are blue
jab your spades deeper you men you other men you others play up again for the dance

Black milk of morning we drink you at night
we drink you at noontime and dawntime we drink you at dusktime
we drink and drink
there’s a man in this house your golden hair Margareta
your ashen hair Shulamite he cultivates snakes

He calls play that death thing more sweetly Death is a gang-boss aus Deutschland
he calls scrape that fiddle more darkly then hover like smoke in the air
then scoop out a grave in the clouds where it’s roomy to lie

Black milk of morning we drink you at night
we drink you at noontime Death is a gang-boss aus Deutschland
we drink you at dusktime and dawntime we drink and drink
Death is a gang-boss aus Deutschland his eye is blue
he shoots you with leaden bullets his aim is true
there’s a man in this house your golden hair Margareta
he sets his dogs on our trail he gives us a grave in the sky
he cultivates snakes and he dreams Death is a gang-boss aus Deutschland

your golden hair Margareta
your ashen hair Shulamite

This is an Elegy to Holocaust Survivers and it is pretty horrific when you think about what he is writing about. I was certainly disturbed by some of the imagery here.

The imagery of black milk could possibly be seen as a Euphemism (the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt). I see it as almost the blood of the other members of the concentration camps. They must drink this black milk in order to survive, but in turn they are killing their own friends and family members like Shulamith who I believe the speaker is related to. He is writing about digging other people's graves. Usually milk is seen as something pure and white, but here it is something that the reader clearly loathes because he "must" drink it. IT is something that isn't good at all and it is scary to think about having to sacrifice others so that another person can live.

They are ordered by the "Meister" who is actually Hitler. He plays with his "snakes" that are actually his Nazi soldiers. The Allusion (A reference to something supposed to be known, but not explicitly mentioned; a covert indication; indirect reference; a hint ) of the snakes is to associate Hitler with possibly the devil.

Rising in smoke to the sky is another image that is truly disturbing. The speaker is talking about burning the corpses of the dead through the euphemism of finding a place in the sky.