The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht
Page 87
BFA 14, 305; c. 1935; P1993; D.C.
Letter to the playwright Clifford Odets
[Brief an den Stückeschreiber Odets]
BFA 14, 305; c. 1935; P1964; T.K.
The tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the Revolution
[Das Grabmal des unbekannten Soldaten der Revolution]
BFA 14, 306; c. 1935; P1964; T.K.
The passenger
[Der Insasse]
BFA 14, 308; c. 1935; P1964; T.K.
He who learns
[Der Lernende]
BFA 14, 309; c. 1935; P1964; T.K.
The man who fears transience
[Der Mann, der die Vergänglichkeit fürchtet]
BFA 14, 309; c. 1935; P1965; T.K.
Fragment. The typescript has no punctuation.
The people who stole the book that was yours . . .
[Die euch das Buch stahlen]
BFA 14, 310; c. 1935; P1965; D.C.
A glass of water for Comrade Alfred!
[Ein Glas Wasser für den Genossen Alfred!]
BFA 14, 310; c. 1935; P1993; T.K.
The poem refers to Alfred Kurella, a Communist journalist and functionary who made a career in Moscow. He had the reputation of being an uncritical Stalinist.
Poems in exile
[Gedichte im Exil]
BFA 14, 311; c. 1935; P1993; T.K.
Fragmentary. It is not clear how or whether the parts of this poem belong together.
Journey from the land of freedom into the land of oppression
[Reise aus dem Land der Freiheit in das Land der Unterdrückung]
BFA 14, 313; c. 1935; P1993; T.K.
They sawed off the branches
[Sie sägten die Äste ab]
BFA 14, 314; c. 1935; P1964; T.K.
On teaching without pupils
[Über das Lehren ohne Schüler]
BFA 14, 315; c. 1935; P1964; T.K.
Interrogation of the good man
[Verhör des Guten]
BFA 14, 316; c. 1935; P1967; Antony Tatlow.
In due course this poem found its way into Brecht’s collection of prose aphorisms and anecdotes, Me-ti.
In long years of study
[Durch langes Studium]
BFA 14, 317; c. 1935/36; P1993; T.K.
The not-to-be-forgotten night
[Die nicht zu vergessende Nacht]
BFA 14, 320; 1936; P1967; T.K.
I used to think: in far-off times . . .
[Einst dachte ich: in fernen Zeiten]
BFA 14, 320; 1936; P1967; T.K.
This poem has also been known after its last lines, “Warum soll mein Name genannt werden?”
To a stadium
[Auf ein Stadion]
BFA 14, 322; 1936; P1993; T.K.
The poem refers to the building of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.
POEMS FOR MARGARETE STEFFIN, 1932–1937
The first sonnet
[Das erste Sonett]
BFA 11, 185; 1932/33; P1964; D.C.
The second sonnet
[Das zweite Sonett]
BFA 11, 185; 1932/33; P1982; D.C.
The third sonnet
[Das dritte Sonett]
BFA 11, 186; 1933; P1982; D.C.
The fourth sonnet
[Das vierte Sonett]
BFA 11, 186; 1933; P1964; D.C.
The fifth sonnet
[Das fünfte Sonett]
BFA 11, 187; 1933; P1961; D.C.
The sixth sonnet
[Das sechste Sonett]
BFA 11, 187; 1933; P1961; D.C.
The seventh sonnet
[Das siebente Sonett]
BFA 11, 188; 1933; P1961; D.C.
The ninth sonnet
[Das neunte Sonett]
BFA 11, 188; 1933/34; P1982; D.C.
The tenth sonnet
[Das zehnte Sonett]
BFA 11, 189; 1933/34; P1982; D.C.
The eleventh sonnet
[Das elfte Sonett]
BFA 11, 189; 1934; P1964; D.C.
The twelfth sonnet. On Dante’s poems to Beatrice
[Das zwölfte Sonett (Über die Gedichte des Dante auf die Beatrice)]
BFA 11, 190; 1934; P1951; D.C.
The thirteenth sonnet
[Das dreizehnte Sonett]
BFA 11, 190; 1934; P1964; D.C.
The eighth sonnet
[Achtes Sonett]
BFA 11, 191; 1933; P1988; D.C.
Steffin commented: “You forgot that time in the car.”
Buying oranges
[Der Orangenkauf]
BFA 11, 195; 1934; P1964; D.C.
Questions
[Fragen]
BFA 11, 195; 1934; P1964; D.C.
Habitual loving
[Liebesgewohnheiten]
BFA 11, 196; 1934; P1982; D.C.
When we had been apart . . .
[Als wir so lang getrennt]
BFA 14, 332; 1936; P1965; D.C.
The poem is unfinished.
19th Sonnet. Encounter with the ivory guardians
[19. Sonett. Begegnung mit den elfenbeinernen Wächtern]
BFA 14, 354; 1937; P1964; D.C.
In the cities he visited without her, Brecht bought Steffin miniature wooden or ivory elephants, so that she had a small herd of them, to be her guardians, he said. Compare ‘The 21st sonnet’ in the next Part.
The good comrade M.S.
[Die gute Genossin M.S.]
BFA 14, 357; 1937; P1964; D.C.
Standing orders for the soldier GGGGGGG
[Reglement für den Soldaten GGGGGGG]
BFA 14, 367; 1937; P1964; D.C.
The poem’s first title was ‘Standing orders for the soldier M.S.’—that is, Margarete Steffin. Brecht then typed over her initials with seven G’s, which allude to the name she was commonly called by, “Grete,” and also, probably, to the greeting Grüss Gott which she and Brecht used to signal their intimacy when they were in a room with other people. Many of their letters to one another end with the cryptic abbreviation “gg.” See also ‘The first sonnet’ (‘When we were first divided into two . . .’). “Emmi” (stanza 3) is very likely Steffin’s typewriter. The central image in stanza 4 occurs again in ‘A realization,’ a poem of 1949 in which the returning exile contemplates the difficulties that lie ahead (see Part V). In the following two poems the soldier is again Margarete Steffin.
The revolutionary soldier’s luck
[Vom Glück des Soldaten der Revolution]
BFA 14, 369; 1937; P1964; D.C.
On one typescript copy Brecht wrote this dedication: “dear Grete, my good soldier!” Later he revised the poem but since it is not clear whether these revisions were intended to expand the existing stanzas or to replace them, the version translated is the first, the one he inscribed, and presumably gave, to Steffin.
Second song of the Soldier of the Revolution
[Zweites Lied vom Soldaten der Revolution]
BFA 14, 370; 1937; P1964; D.C.
Steffin herself typed several copies of the poem. One of them has the note: “Dedicated, like all the ‘Songs of the Soldier of the Revolution’, to the good comrade M.S.”
POEMS FROM THE GERMAN WAR PRIMER COMPLEX
The beginning of war
[Beginn des Krieges]
BFA 14, 323; 1936; P1964; T.K.
The drummer-boy (der Trommler) is of course, like “the housepainter” (der Anstreicher) in other poems, Hitler. This and the next eleven are some of many poems in the style of the ‘German War Primer’ in Svendborg Poems (see below) but which were not included there.
On the heels of the regime’s rallies; The housepainter says; The farmer ploughs the field; The old; Those who fought against their own people; The young people sit bent over their books; The girls under the village trees; It is night; Like a robber
[Den Kundgebungen des Regimes; Der Anstreicher sagt; Der Bauer pflügt den Acker; Die Alternden; Die gegen ihr eigenes Volk kämpften; Die jungen Leute sitzen über die
Bücher gebückt; Die jungen Mädchen unter den Dorfbäumen; Es ist Nacht; Wie der Einbrecher]
BFA 14, 323–26; 1936; P1964 except ‘Es ist Nacht’ (P1951); T.K.
Those who protested
[Die protestiert haben]
BFA 14, 346; 1936/37; P1982; T.K.
In war many things will increase.
[Im Krieg wird sich vieles vergrössern]
BFA 12, 91; 1936/37; P1937; T.K.
This is amongst the poems from an earlier version of the ‘German War Primer’ from Svendborg Poems, published in Das Wort, the Moscow-based German-language cultural journal of the exiles, in 1937.
UNCOLLECTED POEMS 1936–1937
However ill they treat you . . .
[Wie immer sie euch mitspielen]
BFA 14, 326; 1936; P1967; T.K.
Song of the widow in love
[Lied der liebenden Witwe]
BFA 14, 328; 1936; P1965; D.C.
By ship, in cars, on foot, by plane or train . . .
[Mit Schiff, im Plan]
BFA 14, 329; 1936; P1982; T.K.
A fragmentary poem referring to the gathering of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Salud means “greetings.”
The housepainter gets us to build him a battleship . . .
[Der Anstreicher lässt uns ein Kriegsschiff bauen]
BFA 14, 336; c. 1936; P1982; T.K.
Thought in the works of the classics
[Der Gedanke in den Werken der Klassiker]
BFA 14, 337; c. 1936; P1964; Antony Tatlow
The homecoming of Odysseus
[Heimkehr des Odysseus]
BFA 14, 339; c. 1936; P1964; T.K.
The legend of Widow Queck
[Historie von der Witwe Queck]
BFA 14, 339; c. 1936; P1967; T.K.
The source of this story is not known. The Adlon was (and is again) an expensive hotel at the Brandenburg Gate, Moabit a working-class suburb of Berlin with a reputation in the Weimar Republic for Communist activity. The main character of Brecht’s unfinished play The Bread Store is also called Widow Queck.
When we came down into the Third Reich . . .
[Als wir hinunterkamen ins dritte Reich]
BFA 14, 340; c. 1936; P1982; T.K.
Possibly a fragment. The lexis is simple, but has classical (or Miltonian) resonances.
Ni-en’s song
[Ni-ens Lied]
BFA 14, 341; c. 1936; P1993; T.K.
From the context of the prose sketches collected as Me-ti. Ni-en stands for Stalin. In 1953 Brecht reworked the poem as ‘Mao’s song.’
Rules for associating with those who concern themselves with the big issues
[Regeln für den Verkehr mit solchen, die sich mit grossen Gegenständen befassen]
BFA 14, 341; c. 1936; P1965; T.K.
On violence
[Über die Gewalt]
BFA 14, 343; c. 1936; P1964; T.K.
This poem came about in the context of the collection of aphorisms, Me-ti.
If what is should endure . . .
[Wenn das bleibt, was ist]
BFA 14, 343; c. 1936; P1965; T.K.
In the materials for the teaching play The Horatians and the Curiatians.
How should I write immortal works . . .
[Wie soll ich unsterbliche Werke schreiben]
BFA 14, 343; c. 1936; P1993; T.K.
Part of Me-ti again.
The new Don Quixote
[Der neue Don Quichote]
BFA 14, 345; 1936/37; P1967; T.K.
Like the next, this seems to belong to the Gehherda project.
Song from The True Story of Jacob Trotalong
[Lied aus Das wahre Leben des Jakob Gehherda]
BFA 14, 347; 1936/37; P1993; T.K.
The Real Life of Jacob Gehherda was a plan for a play that never came to much. A “Gehherda” was Brecht’s (Bavarian-inflected) term for someone who just does what he’s told, perhaps most accurately a “run-along-there.”
Kin-jeh’s song about the abstemious Chancellor
[Lied des Kin-jeh über den enthaltsamen Kanzler]
BFA 14, 348; 1936/37; P1967; T.K.
Brecht satirizes Hitler’s reputed abstemiousness in this poem that probably also belongs to the Me-ti complex.
Hoppeldoppel Wopp’s louse
[Hoppeldoppel Wopps Laus]
BFA 14, 350; 1937; P1964; T.K.
This and the next were written in Svendborg for his children Stefan and Barbara. Brecht assembled a private collection of such songs.
Whatever next?
[Wo soll das hin?]
BFA 14, 350; 1937; P1965; Myfanwy Lloyd
Tirelessly . . .; Granted, the Browning was found . . .
[Unermüdlich; Freilich wurde der Browning gefunden]
BFA 14, 351; 1937; P1982; T.K.
Two sketches from a notebook.
SOME POEMS FOR RUTH BERLAU
Kin-Jeh said of his sister
[Kin-Jeh sagte von seiner Schwester]
BFA 14, 352; 1937; P1967; D.C.
When he came to fetch her . . .
[Als er sie abholen kam]
BFA 14, 352; 1937; P1982; T.K.
When the stone says . . .
[Wenn der Stein sagt]
BFA 14, 353; 1937; P1967; T.K.
To be read mornings and evenings
[Morgens und abends zu lesen]
BFA 14, 353; 1937; P1964; T.K.
Our unceasing conversation . . .
[Unser unaufhörliches Gespräch]
BFA 14, 354; 1937; P1967; D.C.
Kin-Jeh’s second poem about his sister
[Zweites Gedicht Kin-jehs über seine Schwester]
BFA 14, 356; 1937; P1967; D.C.
On the fickleness of women
[Über die Untreue der Weiber]
BFA 14, 384; c. 1937; P1982; T.K.
Last love song
[Letztes Liebeslied]
BFA 14, 383; c. 1937; P1965; T.K.
Fruitless call
[Vergeblicher Anruf]
BFA 14, 430; 1939; P1982; D.C.
Although this and the next two poems are rather later, they are again to Ruth Berlau and fit well in this sequence. “Svarer ikke” is the Danish operator: “she doesn’t answer.”
Ardens sed virens
[Ardens sed virens]
BFA 14, 438; 1939; P1964; T.K.
The Latin title means “burning but flourishing” (it is the motto of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and often accompanied by the biblical image of the burning bush—where Brecht got it from is not known). The first typescript includes a quotation from the first of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850): “‘Guess now who holds thee!’—‘Death,’ I said. But, there, / The silver answer rang—‘Not Death, but Love.’”
Bivvy
[Biwak]
BFA 14, 438; 1939; P1982; T.K.
This one belongs, possibly as a pair, with ‘Ardens sed virens.’ It refers to Berlau and Brecht’s “third thing,” the struggle for a socialist life worthy of a human being, in which Berlau was often on her travels. Berlau wore an iron ring as a symbol of her bond with Brecht, and she dressed mostly in black, a style Brecht liked. Their stormy relationship will feature again in later poems.
POEMS ON SEÑORA CARRAR
The actress in exile
[Die Schauspielerin in Exil]
BFA 14, 355; 1937; P1937; T.K.
The poem refers to the premiere of Señora Carrar’s Rifles in Paris in October 1937, in which Weigel played the title role. In 1938 she played the same role in Copenhagen, and Brecht wrote several poems (following) about that performance.
Description of H.W.’s acting
[Beschreibung des Spiels der H.W.]
BFA 14, 372; c. 1937; P1967; T.K.
The second beat; Deliberation 1; Make up; Loose body; Absent mind
[Der Nachschlag; Überlegung 1; Schminke; Lockerer Körper; Abwesender Geist]
BFA 14, 375–76; c
. 1937; P1967; T.K.
The representation of past and present in one
[Darstellung von Vergangenheit und Gegenwart in einem]
BFA 14, 372; c. 1937; P1993; T.K.
Again this probably refers to the Copenhagen premiere of Señora Carrar’s Rifles. Compare also the other theater poems, especially ‘On everyday theatre’ (below).
Sending her son off fishing . . .
[Den Sohn zum Fischen schickend]
BFA 14, 389; c. 1937/38; P1967; T.K.
UNCOLLECTED POEMS 1937–1938
Washing
[Das Waschen]
BFA 14, 360; 1937; P1965; T.K.
The actress Carola Neher worked with Brecht in Berlin, amongst other things recording the songs of The Threepenny Opera. She fled to Moscow in 1933 and was arrested there in July 1936, accused of being a “Trotskyist agent,” and sentenced to ten years in prison. Brecht made several efforts to find out what was going on or to intervene on her behalf. Neher died of typhus in 1942 as she was being taken to Siberia. The first version of this poem, without the second stanza, dates from the late 1920s, and Brecht worked on it again shortly before he died.
The dispatched
[Die Sendlinge]
BFA 14, 361; 1937; P1964; T.K.
Refers to the German involvement in the Spanish Civil War.
The virtues of the Chancellor
[Die Tugenden des Kanzlers]
BFA 14, 362; 1937; P1982; T.K.
The poem plays on Hitler’s reputedly simple and abstemious lifestyle. It was probably written with the ‘German Satires,’ originally with radio broadcast in mind, most of which made their way into Svendborg Poems. Compare also ‘Kin-jeh’s song about the abstemious Chancellor’ (above).
A prediction
[Eine Voraussage]
BFA 14, 362; 1937; P1965; T.K.
One of the Poems in Exile (Gedichte im Exil) which formed the basis for Svendborg Poems—from which this one was then excluded.
Driving along in a comfortable car . . .
[Fahrend in einem bequemen Wagen]
BFA 14, 363; 1937; P1964; T.K.
Marriage banns of Goliath, issued by the Philistines