Friday, May 1, 2020

Questions From A Worker Who Reads – Bertolt Brecht
















Who built the seven-gated Thebes?
Books merely mention the kings.
Did they carry the boulders?
And Babylon, destroyed many a times 
Who rebuilt it every time?
In which houses in glittering golden Lima did the workers live?
And the evening,
The great wall of China was completed,
Where did all the workers vanish?

Great Rome, filled with triumphal arches -
Who erected those?
Whom did Caesars conquer?
Were there only palaces for everyone
In the glorious Byzantine?
In the magnificent Atlantis
Did they call their slaves,
The night the sea swallowed it?

Young Alexander conquered India.
Alone?
Caesar defeated the Gauls.
Was there not even a cook with him?
Philip of Spain wept as he watched his fleet sink.
Did no one else weep with him?
Frederick II triumphed in the seven years' war
Who else won beside him?

Every page has a victory.
Who cooked the victory feasts?

Every decade, a great man.
Who paid for his expenses?

So many stories.
So many questions.

- Translated to English by Parvez. 5.01.2020
















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