Oulanem, A Tragedy is a poetic play written by Karl Marx in 1839 during his years as a student, at the age of 21. The action takes place in a mountain town in Italy where a mysterious German stranger, Oulanem, and his companion, Lucindo, arrive. The play was translated into English first by Robert Payne in 1971.
Marx only completed the first act of the play. The titular character's name is an anagram of Manuelo, which is believed to be a reference to Immanuel, one of the biblical names for Jesus Christ. The first act includes a soliloquy in which Oulanem laments mortality and the inevitable destruction of the world by God, and asks himself if he must destroy the world in turn in defiance. This closely echoes themes from Goethe's "Prometheus", an 18th-century poem much admired by authors of the early Romantic era.
Marx biographer Richard Wurmbrand argues that the poem contains evidence that Marx is Satanic.