To speak of trees (Brecht)
For this world we live in
None of us is sly enough.
Never do we notice
All is lie and bluff.
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Was there not even a cook in his army?
Do not treat me in this fashion.
Don’t leave me out. Have I not
Always spoken the truth in my books? And now
You treat me like a liar! I order you:
Burn me!
Those who lead the country into the abyss
Call ruling too difficult
For ordinary men.
Ah, what an age it is
When to speak of trees is almost a crime
For it is a kind of silence about injustice!
(Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956), German playwright, poet. Selected Poems, “To Posterity,” (1939; tr. 1947 by H. R. Hays). Written in response to the Nazi book burnings in 1933 a lament during World War II for not being able to write about the good and the beautiful.
None of us is sly enough.
Never do we notice
All is lie and bluff.
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Was there not even a cook in his army?
Do not treat me in this fashion.
Don’t leave me out. Have I not
Always spoken the truth in my books? And now
You treat me like a liar! I order you:
Burn me!
Those who lead the country into the abyss
Call ruling too difficult
For ordinary men.
Ah, what an age it is
When to speak of trees is almost a crime
For it is a kind of silence about injustice!
(Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956), German playwright, poet. Selected Poems, “To Posterity,” (1939; tr. 1947 by H. R. Hays). Written in response to the Nazi book burnings in 1933 a lament during World War II for not being able to write about the good and the beautiful.
posted by حـدوتـة @ 10:30 AM
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