Treating Paul Celan

Any Good Poem

Richard Berlin, MD, shares his poem "Treating Paul Celan," which was featured in the August 2024 issue of Psychiatric Times.

The poet Paul Celan (1920-1970) was born to a Jewish family in a region of Romania that is now part of Ukraine. His parents died in a prison camp during the Second World War, and Celan himself was a work camp prisoner. After the war, Celan lived in Paris where he wrote his iconic Holocaust poem “Death Fugue.” The poem is considered to be one of the most important of the post-war period. Years later, Celan later commited suicide. He was 50.

Celan’s history of suicide sparked Dr Berlin to write a poem in which he imagines treating Celan as his patient, wondering if he could have prevented his death. Dr Berlin also strongly recommends you read an English translation of Celan's poem “Death Fugue” and then listen to Celan read the poem in German.

Dr Berlin has been writing a poem about his experience of being a doctor every month for the past 26 years in Psychiatric Times in a column called “Poetry of the Times.” He is instructor in psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts. His latest book is Tender Fences.