Death Fugue

At first, Death Fugue, appears to be a long poem, but after reading I realized it has several repeating phrases.
"Black milk of daybreak" is such a disturbing opening line. Milk is supposed to be a white, healthy, creamy liquid that the drinker enjoys. Black indicates it has been horribly soiled, perhaps going as far to say that ashes have darkened it. For me this recurring phrase was the most cryptic. When Celan began describing the man in the house, that became a bit more straightforward. He is in charge of the working Jews in the camps, and commands them to dig graves for each other, and dance for his entertainment.

He plays with "the serpents", which could be representative of fellow Nazis, or serpents maybe representing the evil ideas that the Nazis stood for. His writing to the "golden hair Margarete" is a personification of Germany as a person of perfect Aryan race. This is made more clear when Celan then describes "your ashen hair Shulamith", a representation of a Jewish member of Germany. The golden hair, and ashen hair juxtapose each other, and create the emotion that Nazis obviously held toward Jews. Ashen is such a harsh word compared to golden, and goes along with the use of "black milk", while "eyes are blue" is another description of the perfect Aryan race.