by Tom Kuhn
BFA 12, 313; 1953?; P1964; D.C.
On reading Horace
[Beim Lesen des Horaz]
BFA 12, 315; 1953; P1957; D.C.
Sounds
[Laute]
BFA 12, 313; 1953?; P1957; D.C.
On reading a Soviet book
[Bei der Lektüre eines sowjetischen Buches]
BFA 12, 308; 1953; P1953; D.C.
The Muses
[Die Musen]
BFA 12, 313; 1953; P1964; D.C.
The voice of the October storm . . .
[Die Stimme des Oktobersturms]
BFA 15, 259; 1952; P1964; D.C.
The seven lives of literature
[Die sieben Leben der Literatur]
BFA 15, 274; c. 1953; P1982; D.C.
Then I was back in Buckow . . .
[Dann wieder war ich in Buckow]
BFA 15, 268; 1953; P1993; D.C.
The dog
[Der Hund]
BFA 15, 270; 1953; P1957; D.C.
UNCOLLECTED POEMS 1953–1956
The maid’s song
[Lied der Magd]
BFA 15, 265; 1953; P1967; D.C.
Brecht wrote this and the next song for a production in Vienna of Ben Jonson’s Volpone in a German version by Elisabeth Hauptmann and Benno Besson.
O Venice, city of dreams . . .
[O Venice, Stadt der Träume]
BFA 15, 265; 1953; P1967; D.C.
Spring
[Frühling]
BFA 15, 266; 1953; P1964; D.C.
First calendar song
[Kalenderlied I]
BFA 15, 266; 1953; P1993; D.C.
This and the next poem are Brecht’s rewritings of two poems by Erwin Strittmatter, whose play Katzgraben Brecht directed in a performance by the Berliner Ensemble in February 1953. Strittmatter had written the songs to introduce two of the scenes in his play and would not accept Brecht’s versions.
Second calendar song
[Kalenderlied 2]
BFA 15, 267; 1953; P1993; D.C.
The Department of Literature
[Das Amt für Literatur]
BFA 15, 267; 1953; P1953; D.C.
Brecht’s response to a decision by the Department of Literature and Publishing not to allow publication of works by the highly respected Ludwig Renn on the grounds of a shortage of paper.
Unascertainable errors of the Bureau for the Arts
[Nicht feststellbare Fehler der Kunstkommission]
BFA 15, 268; 1953; P1953; D.C.
One of Brecht’s contributions to the more or less honest soul-searching provoked in the GDR by the uprising of June 17, 1953. Several of the following poems were written in that context.
The bread of the people
[Das Brot des Volkes]
BFA 15, 269; 1953; P1964; D.C.
Not meant like that
[Nicht so gemeint]
BFA 15, 270; 1953; P1957; D.C.
During the uprising fires were started and books were burned in various cities of the GDR. The official view was that West German neo-fascists and agents provocateurs were responsible.
Is every sentence . . . ?
[Ist jeder Satz]
BFA 15, 272; 1953; P1993; D.C.
Don’t say too often . . .
[Sag nicht zu oft]
BFA 15, 272; 1953; P1967; D.C.
The sons of Jacob go forth to get food in Egypt
[Jakobs Söhne ziehen aus]
BFA 15, 272; 1953; P1953; D.C.
Borrowing from the biblical story of Joseph and his brothers, this poem, published on August 9, 1953, in the Berliner Zeitung, is Brecht’s take on the Americans’ free distribution of nearly two million food parcels, in West Berlin, to GDR citizens.
Bitterly you think of the past . . .
[Bitter gedenkst du der Vergangenheit]
BFA 15, 273; c. 1953; P1982; D.C.
Tell the man drawing the cart
[Sage ihm, der den Wagen zieht]
BFA 15, 271; 1953; P1967; T.K.
This and the next two poems were written in the context of the work on Turandot, or The Whitewashers’ Congress.
Ballad of the Emperor
[Ballade des Kaisers]
BFA 15, 273; c. 1935; P1982; T.K.
Song of the particularity of the Limesian Tuis
[Lied von der Besonderheit der limesischen Tuis]
BFA 15, 275; c. 1953; P1982; T.K.
This didn’t make its way into Brecht’s Turandot play and may have been intended instead for the Tui Novel, which was never completed. “Tuis” were Brecht’s satirical take on marketized intellectuals: “Tellekt-Ual-In.” The first notes towards a Tui project date back to the mid-1930s and refer to the failure of the intelligentsia in the Weimar Republic and the feebleness of the response to Nazism; later, more satire was directed specifically at Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt School, and later still at the limp cultural-intellectual scene of the young GDR.
Yes we may still . . .
[Noch ist es möglich]
BFA 15, 275; c. 1953; P1982; T.K.
Very fragmentary. Nonetheless, allusions to the political situation in Germany come through.
When the stormwinds fall . . .
[Wenn der Sturm sich auf das Schilf wirft]
BFA 15, 275; c. 1953; P1982; T.K.
Probably fragmentary. Brecht makes reference to the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (9 CE) in which Germanic tribes led by Arminius defeated the Roman troops under Varus. The context of the poem is the suppression of the popular uprising in East Berlin by Soviet forces and GDR police. See also the Buckow Elegies.
What kind, what breed are we . . .
[Was für ein Geschlecht sind wir]
BFA 15, 277; 1954; P1982; T.K.
The poem refers to the US H-bomb tests on the Bikini atoll.
Song of the rivers
[Lied von den Flüssen]
BFA 15, 277 (and 478); 1954; P1954; T.K.
This was requested from Brecht by the film director Joris Ivens. The musical setting was provided by Shostakovich, and the song featured in the 1954 documentary film Das Lied der Ströme (The Song of the Rivers), where it is sung by Ernst Busch and Paul Robeson, the latter in an English version by Lloyd Brown:
Old Man Mississippi rages
Robs us of our cattle, plunders field ashore.
Levy walls forgotten by the rulers
Spending billions for atomic war.
But we who suffered devastation
Who drowned in the rivers of blood,
Cry peace for our land and all others,
Unite ’gainst the flood.
There are several different drafts and versions of the song, and it seems that the Volga verse was composed by a Russian poet and translated by Brecht. Ours is an independent translation of Brecht’s German text.
To a colleague who stayed in the theatre during the summer break
[An eine Mitarbeiterin, die während der Sommerferien im Theater zurückgeblieben ist]
BFA 15, 279; 1954; P1964; T.K.
For Isot Kilian, actress and assistant director, and Brecht’s last close female collaborator. She stayed with the Berliner Ensemble long after his death. The poem refers to the Picasso peace dove which the Berliner Ensemble adopted as a trademark, to the tour to France with Mother Courage, and to the planned productions of Brecht’s adaptation of Coriolanus (which never materialized) and of The Caucasian Chalk Circle.
Wood
[Holz]
BFA 15, 280; 1954; P1993; T.K.
In 1954 Brecht read Ingeborg Bachmann’s first collection, Die gestundete Zeit (1953; Deferred Time). In a violent act of appropriation he underscored the lines he thought worth preserving and then reconfigured them as his “adaptations.” This poem is made up of two separate sections taken out of Bachmann’s thirty-line poem ‘Holz und Späne’ (‘Wood and splinters’). He did similar things to another seven Bachmann poems.
1954, first half
[1954, erste Hälfte
]
BFA 15, 281; 1954; P1964; T.K.
In June 1954 Brecht went to the PEN Club conference in Amsterdam and visited Bruges, then went on to Paris where the Berliner Ensemble was playing Mother Courage. A.T. is probably Isot Kilian. And The Caucasian Chalk Circle was in rehearsal for a later Ensemble premiere at their home theater “am Schiffbauerdamm.”
Storm bird
[Sturmvogel]
BFA 15, 281; 1954; P1955; T.K.
This is loosely based on a German translation of Maxim Gorky’s popular poem ‘The song of the stormy petrel’ (1901). It was created for a reading by Helene Weigel at a celebration of the Russian Revolution at the Berliner Ensemble in November 1954.
Ah, how shall we account . . .
[Ach wie solln wir nun]
BFA 15, 283; 1954; P1967; T.K.
For Isot Kilian (see above).
Do not throw into the battle . . .
[Nicht in die Schlacht wirf]
BFA 15, 283; 1954; P1964; T.K.
The greenhouse
[Das Gewächshaus]
BFA 15, 284; c. 1954; P1964; T.K.
The poem refers to a greenhouse at Buckow.
You appear . . .
[Du scheinst dich]
BFA 15, 284; c. 1954; P1993; T.K.
Virgil’s Georgics is a long poem about agriculture.
E.P. The selection of his gravestone
[E.P. Auswahl seines Grabsteins]
BFA 15, 285; c. 1954; P1965; T.K.
Brecht is riffing on Ezra Pound’s ‘E.P. Ode pour l’élection de son sépulchre’ (1920), which in turn ironizes a poem by Pierre de Ronsard. For Brecht, Pound was one of those poets you might find “in the temples” and “not exactly in the marketplaces” (Journal, November 20, 1945).
Joyously to eat of meat . . .
[Fröhlich vom Fleisch zu essen]
BFA 15, 285; c. 1954; P1964; T.K.
Here is the map . . .
[Hier ist die Karte]
BFA 15, 286; c. 1954; P1964; T.K.
Love song from a bad time
[Liebeslied aus einer schlechten Zeit]
BFA 15, 286; c. 1954; P1964; T.K.
Possibly for Isot Kilian.
And the smile once meant for me . . .
[Und das Lächeln, das mir galt]
BFA 15, 287; c. 1954; P1982; T.K.
Amongst the manuscript materials for Trumpets and Drums (see below).
Pleasures
[Vergnügungen]
BFA 15, 287; c. 1954; P1957; T.K.
For the actress Käthe Reichel.
When I have to leave you dear . . .
[Wenn ich von dir gehen werde]
BFA 15, 288; 1955; P1967; T.K.
This is one of the songs for Brecht’s adaptation of George Farquhar’s 1706 play The Recruiting Officer (Trumpets and Drums), where it is sung on the banks of the Severn, the first verse by a recruit, the second by his girl.
So you could sit here . . .
[Dass ihr hier sitzen könnt]
BFA 15, 290; 1955; P1955; T.K.
The third stanza here, in the same form as the quatrains of War Primer, was published on the back of the dust jacket of the first edition of that collection (East Berlin: Eulenspiegel, 1955) along with a photo of rows of students listening in a tiered lecture hall.
So lads, before they lay down with their lasses . . .
[Die Burschen, eh sie ihre Mädchen legen]
BFA 15, 292; 1955; P1967; T.K.
Written for Ernst Bloch, for his seventieth birthday, and playing on Macheath’s ballad ‘Of forgiveness’ from The Threepenny Opera.
But I who’ve seen how roses fade . . .
[Ich, der ich Rosen aber sterben sah]
BFA 15, 292; 1955; P1957; T.K.
Send me a leaf . . .
[Schicke mir ein Blatt]
BFA 15, 293; 1955; P1964; D.C.
For Ruth Berlau.
Tank squadron, I’m glad . . .
[Panzereinheit, ich freue mich]
BFA 15, 294; c. 1955; P1965; T.K.
In the style of War Primer, Brecht wrote this as commentary to a newspaper photo showing Chinese soldiers and a tank, and bearing the caption: “The members of a tank unit of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army put their names to the World Peace Council’s Vienna ‘Appeal against the Preparations for Nuclear War.’”
Difficult times
[Schwierige Zeiten]
BFA 15, 294; c. 1955; P1957; T.K.
If we lasted forever
[Dauerten wir unendlich]
BFA 15, 294; c. 1955; P1964; T.K.
The great day when I am become useless
[Der schöne Tag, wenn ich nutzlos geworden bin]
BFA 15, 295; c. 1955; P1964; T.K.
I was sad when I was young . . .
[War traurig, wann ich jung war]
BFA 15, 295; c. 1955; P1967; T.K.
My one and only
[Meine Einzige]
BFA 15, 296; 1956; P1993; T.K.
At a writers’ congress in January 1956 Brecht met the Turkish writer Nazim Hikmet. He later spoke of translating Hikmet and organizing a German edition. His source for this poem was probably an English translation of one of Hikmet’s Letters from Prison, ‘Karina Mektup,’ written in 1933 when Hikmet was in prison in Bursa for Communist agitation. Brecht’s approach to his source is formally loose, abbreviating, changing the line division and omitting a final stanza.
Contrary song
[Gegenlied]
BFA 15, 296; 1956; P1964; T.K.
When Brecht was re-editing the Domestic Breviary for publication, he wrote this as a response to his early poem ‘The friendliness of the world’ (see Part I).
What Orge wants
[Orges Wunschliste]
BFA 15, 297; 1956; P1967; D.C.
Written for the new edition of the Domestic Breviary. Orge is Georg Pfanzelt, a close friend in Brecht’s youth and a frequent character in his early work.
Change, but for the worse
[Veränderung, aber zum Schlechten]
BFA 15, 298; 1956; P1982; T.K.
The poem refers to shared projects and experiences with Ruth Berlau. Shen Te is the heroine of The Good Person of Szechwan. A certain amount remains obscure. The brickie is the Danish poet Henry Jul Andersen, who died in the Spanish Civil War and whose decision to fight Berlau defended against Brecht (see also ‘The trowel’ and ‘Second poem of the dead brickie’ in Part III).
Even in the mouths of infants
[Selbst im Munde Unmündiger]
BFA 15, 299; 1956; P1993; T.K.
Two times two is four . . .
[Zwei mal zwei ist vier]
BFA 15, 300; 1956; P1982; T.K.
Possibly fragmentary. Katzgraben is the eponymous village setting of a play by Erwin Strittmatter that was produced by the Berliner Ensemble under Brecht’s leadership. Gottfried Benn (1886–1956) was a German poet who started off an Expressionist. He flirted with Nazism in 1933 but soon turned away from the regime, remaining, however, in Germany. His work was popular in the West after the war.
The Tsar spoke to them . . .
[Der Zar hat mit ihnen gesprochen]
BFA 15, 300; 1956; P1982; T.K.
This and next three poems are Brecht’s reaction on receiving, in June 1956, the protocols of the 20th Party Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, which took place in February 1956, where Khrushchev revealed the consequences of Stalin’s personality cult. Bloody Sunday is the name given to the crushing of the demonstrations in front of the St. Petersburg Winter Palace by Tsar Nicholas II’s soldiers in January 1905. The formulation in line 6 of the poem (‘Der verdiente Mörder des Volkes’) echoes the sort of title conferred for services to the state in the early Soviet period. It was a Russian poet, A. O. Avdienko, who addressed Stalin as the “sun, who is reflected by millions of human hearts.”
For the cultivation of winter wheat . . .
[Zur Züchtung winterfesten Weizens]
BF
A 15, 301; 1956; P1982; T.K.
The God is maggoty . . .
[Der Gott ist madig]
BFA 15, 301; 1956; P1982; T.K.
The weights on the balance . . .
[Die Gewichte auf der Waage]
BFA 15, 301; 1956; P1982; T.K.
Poem for adults
[Poem für Erwachsene]
BFA 15, 302; 1956; P1993; T.K.
A near-literal translation of ‘Poemat dla dorosłych’ by Adam Ważyk, a Polish Jewish poet whom Brecht admired as “the best poet between here and Peking.” Ważyk’s grimly anti-Stalinist poem was published in Polish in August 1955 and met with a storm of official Communist criticism, as well as outspoken support. His poems had also been published in German periodicals, and likewise aggressively attacked by the Party. The next six are also translations of Ważyk. Brecht worked from translations by Konrad Swinarski and possibly others.
Chronicle
[Die Chronik]
BFA 15, 314; 1956; P1993; T.K.
After Ważyk’s ‘Kronika.’ See previous note.
For Paul Éluard
[An Paul Eluard]
BFA 15, 311; 1956; P1993; T.K.
After Ważyk’s ‘Pamięci Pawła Eluard.’ Éluard (1895–1952) was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement; after the Spanish Civil War he rejected avant-garde experimentation in favor of political commitment.
Postcard from a socialist city
[Ansichtskarte aus einer sozialistischen Stadt]
BFA 15, 312; 1956; P1993; T.K.
After Ważyk’s ‘Widokówka z míasta socjalistycznego.’
Murder
[Der Mord]
BFA 15, 312; 1956; P1993; T.K.
After Ważyk’s ‘Morderstwo.’ The poem refers to the development of pioneer towns in Siberia and Lenin’s electrification program. The cities of the last stanza are the sites of battles in the Second World War.
Those who died for us on Warsaw’s walls . . .
[Die uns auf Warschaus Mauern starben]
BFA 15, 313; 1956; P1993; T.K.
After Ważyk’s ‘Dzieje.’ The references are again all to battles in the Second World War (and Guadarrama in the Spanish Civil War).