Sedulia's Translations

Hofmannsthal: My ancestors are as related to me as my own hair

I still feel their breath on my cheeks:
how can it be that these near days
are gone, gone forever, and completely over?
This is a thing that no one completely thinks out,
and much too horrible to complain about:
that everything slides and trickles away.
And that my own I, with nothing to stop it,
slid over here out of a small child
to me, like a dog, eerily silent and strange.
Then: to think that a hundred years ago, I was,
and my ancestors, in their shrouds,
are as related to me as my own hair,
as one with me as my own hair.

   --Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929)

Über Vergänglichkeit

Noch spür ich ihren Atem auf den Wangen:
Wie kann das sein, daß diese nahen Tage
Fort sind, für immer fort, und ganz vergangen?
Dies ist ein Ding, das keiner voll aussinnt,
Und viel zu grauenvoll, als daß man klage:
Daß alles gleitet und vorüberrinnt.
Und daß mein eigenes Ich, durch nichts gehemmt,
Herüberglitt aus einem kleinen Kind,
Mir wie ein Hund unheimlich stumm und fremd.
Dann: daß ich auch vor hundert Jahren war
Und meine Ahnen, die im Totenhemd,
Mit mir verwandt sind wie mein eigenes Haar,
So eins mit mir als wie mein eignes Haar.

  

Liliane Wouters: To the child I did not have

Will and Testament

For Alain Bosquet

To the child I did not had
but which I received from a man
seventy-seven times and more, to the good child
whose breath and face I formed
seventy-seven times, in a belly like mine,
by nights red with the sun,
by crystalline days of northern dawns,
to the child whose secret initials
I carry inside me, along with your name, Yahweh,
a child conceived, but still unfinished,
that they make in me, that I make, each time I love,
that is undone inside me to give a poem,
to the child that will not come
to close my eyes, to choose the winding-sheet,
to walk behind my weight of bones, of ashes,
to watch me descend into the grave,
to this child I bequeath before God, before
men and my dog, before the living day
(which is only because I am and which will die
as I die) I bequeath, as much as can be,
as much as can be used instead of, in place of
me, its mother and father in one being,
I bequeath all my fleshly and spiritual goods,
of time still counted and of illusory space:

the corner of the sky I have stared at in vain,
the acre of land where I wore out my shoes,
the four walls inside which I stayed,
the six partitions that were their twins;
the money that ran through my fingers--
for the pleasure I had in spreading it--
the false knowledge that they thought they passed me
-- for the happiness of unlearning it just as soon--;

the days I passed that I did not live,
the days lived where I passed nearby,
the mortal time I survived,
the hour, eternal and yet erased;

the love thrown away whose price I did not know,
 the love given to those who could not take it,
the love offered that I took back right away,
the love lost that you can still see waiting outside.

To the child that I did not have,
whom I have all the same, formed
of my seed, conceived in my flesh,
whose existence is perfected in every embrace,
to this child I bequeath for the better but especially for
the worst, what the day has lent me:

the I which I use on credit
at an interest I can't afford,
whose face and sex I could not choose
(you have to take what you get):

a hollow brain in a full head,
a body too soft on bones too strong,
blood too lively for a short breath,
a heart too gentle for this furious blood,

feet that have raised nothing but dust,
arms surprised to have embraced the wind,
knees trapped by prayers,
hands staying empty as before;

eyes closed on a side of things,
-- that half that we all are missing--,
eyes open under their closed pupils
and in the dark seeing more than they should.

To the child I did not have
I bequeath lastly, so that it will pay
attention, so that it will remember
through stubbornness, when the hem
of my passage is ripped out of the ancient fabric:

the fifteen things that I never could do:
bow my head before those greater than I,
walk on those lower, point a finger,
shout with the crowd, or else be silent,
recognize the Black among the Whites,
choose the ten just men, name a guilty party,
find that suitable attitude,
read someone besides myself in the mirrors,
conjugate love in several persons,
resist temptation, wound on purpose,
stay indecisive, say "Nuts"
instead of "Shit," which is more French.

   --Liliane Wouters (1930-). This poem is from the book  Poèmes à dire, ed. by Zéno Bianu, Gallimard (2002). Here is an excerpt from the beginning.

Testament

Pour Alain Bosquet

À l'enfant que je n'ai pas eu
mais que d'un homme je reçus
septante fois sept fois et davantage, à l'enfant sage
dont je formai le souffle et le visage
sept fois septante fois, dans un ventre pareil
au mien, par des nuits rouges de soleil,
par des jours cristallins d'aurore boréale,
à l'enfant dont je porte en moi les initiales
secrètes, ainsi que ton nom, Yahvé,
enfant conçu, toujours inachevé,
qu'on me fait, que je fais, à chaque fois que j'aime,
qui se défait en moi pour donner un poème,
à l'enfant qui ne viendra pas
clore mes yeux, choisir l'ultime drap,
marcher derrière mon poids d'os, de cendres,
me regarder dans la fosse descendre,
à cet enfant je lègue devant Dieu, devant
les hommes et mon chien, devant le jour vivant
(qui n'est que parce que je suis et qui mourra
comme je meurs) je lègue, pour autant qu'on pourra,
pour autant qu'il en fasse usage en lieu et place
de moi, ses père et mère en un seul être pris,
je lègue tous mes biens de chair, d'esprit,
de temps toujours compté et d'illusoire espace....

Sabine Sicaud: Speak to you? No. I cannot.

Speak to you? No. I cannot.
I prefer to suffer like a plant,
like the bird that says nothing on the linden tree.
They wait. That's fine. Since they aren't tired
of waiting, I'll wait, with the same waiting.

They suffer alone. One should learn how to suffer alone.
I don't want indifferent people ready to smile
nor friends groaning. No one should come.

The plant says nothing. The bird is silent. What would they say?
This pain is alone in the world, whatever one wants.
It is not the pain of others, it is mine.

A leaf has its ache that the other leaf ignores.
And the bird's ache-- the other bird knows nothing about it.

One doesn't know. One doesn't know. Who is like another?
And if they were, what matter. This evening
I don't want to hear a single vain word.

I wait-- like the old motionless tree
and the mute finch behind the window...
A drop of pure water, a little wind, who knows?
What are they waiting for? We will wait for it together.
The sun has told them it will come back, perhaps....

      --Sabine Sicaud (1913-1928) died at age 15 after much suffering.

Vous parler? Non. Je ne peux pas.
Je préfère souffrir comme une plante,
comme l'oiseau qui ne dit rien sur le tilleul.
Ils attendent. C'est bien. Puisqu'ils ne sont pas las
d'attendre, j'attendrai, de cette même attente.

Ils souffrent seuls. On doit apprendre à souffrir seul.
Je ne veux pas d'indifférents prêts à sourire
ni d'amis gémissants. Que nul ne vienne.

La plante ne dit rien. L'oiseau se tait. Que dire?
Cette douleur est seule au monde, quoi qu'on veuille.
Elle n'est pas celle des autres, c'est la mienne.

Une feuille a son mal qu'ignore l'autre feuille.
Et le mal de l'oiseau, l'autre oiseau n'en sait rien.

On ne sait pas. On ne sait pas. Qui se ressemble ?
Et se ressemblât-on, qu'importe. Il me convient
de n'entendre ce soir nulle parole vaine.

J'attends - comme le font derrière la fenêtre
le vieil arbre sans geste et le pinson muet...
une goutte d'eau pure, un peu de vent, qui sait ?
Qu'attendent-ils ? Nous l'attendrons ensemble.
Le soleil leur a dit qu'il reviendrait, peut-être...          

Lounès Matoub on the death of Mohamed Boudiaf: Algeria will rise from this evil

Hymn to Boudiaf

For so many years far from your country!
You revolted, you turned against tyranny
We were waiting for the new clearness from you
about what the criminals had devoured
but behind you, death rose up
guided by unforeseeable traitors
Miserable ones, may he remind you of it--  
you are the ones who lit the furnace.

Alas, alas, sad widows!
[woman's voice]
We are torn from men who did not deserve to die.
{repeat}

The plotters called you
in that air of terrible oppression
they invited you to the no-man's-land
You came, careless of the tufts of nettles
They undid the bonds of our land
she sank into a bottomless pool
she sank head first
the nations watched her being swallowed up.

Alas, alas, sad widows!
[woman's voice] We are torn apart from men who did not deserve to die.
{repeat}

 You found the country being ravaged
It is torn, gone to rags
Some exalt themselves: "We are Arabs
and nothing was here before us."
As for the know-nothings and their henchmen 
they have sworn never to relent.
They are sharpening the last judgment
against those who affront their plans.

Alas, alas, sad widows!
[woman's voice:] We are torn apart from men who did not deserve to die.
{repeat}

Your name has gone into history,
future generations will find it
this time of suffering is not for always
although today, the Furies are burning us.
Algeria will rise again from this evil
knowledge will put out buds,
you have opened the way to the dignity of our people
rest in peace, honorable Boudiaf.
you have opened the way to the dignity of our people
At present, be in peace, honorable Boudiaf...

[Over, in French: From Abane to Boudiaf, how many crimes have been orchestrated!
Krim, Khider, and others...
Will we leave this ancestral land in the hands of these sad cases who have plunged it into chaos?
Or in the claws of these "lit-up*" cowards? 

          --Mohamed Boudiaf (1919-1992) was an Algerian patriot who became head of state briefly after a long period of exile, but was assassinated after only four months. The country slid into a long period of violence and civil war, and is only recently emerging. The Berbers (Algerian Berbers are Kabyles) are the original inhabitants of North Africa, and were conquered by the Arabs and converted from Christianity to Islam in the early 700s. Today, the Berber language is a focus of a new sense of Berber pride. Lounès Matoub (1956-1998), a famous Algerian Berber singer, wrote this song about him. Lounès Matoub was himself assassinated in 1998.

You can see Lounès Matoub singing the song here, in the Berber language, with French subtitles. I came across his music for the first time in the French movie Là-bas... mon pays ("Over there...my country"), about a Frenchman who grew up in colonial Algeria and goes back many years later. The music wails across the landscape through most of the film and powerfully evokes a mood of nostalgia, longing, and rebellion.

*The word in the French translation is illuminés, which means "the enlightened ones," but is sarcastic and refers to religious fanatics and crazy people.

Early 2003: Chirac asks theologian to explain George W. Bush's reference to Gog and Magog

U.S. President George W. Bush at prayer

George Bush and the Code of Ezekiel

When he evokes the political situation in the the Middle East, the president of the United States sees Gog and Magog at work--two creatures who appear an apocalyptic vision of the Old Testament! The explanations of Thomas Römer, an expert at UNIL (the University of Lausanne) who was contacted by the Elysées [the French President's residence] in 2003, when Jacques Chirac was trying to elucidate the troubling references of George W. Bush.

"The telephone rang. It was the head of the Biblical Service of the Protestant Federation of France [Service biblique de la Federation protestante de France]. She asked me if I could write a page on Gog and Magog for the French President."  Thomas Römer, a theology professor at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and specialist in the Old Testament, had just been plunged into the midst of international politics. This apparently banal theological inquiry had unsuspected ramifications, for it was incited by George W. Bush.

"The prophecies are being accomplished."

"I also learned during this phone call that the President of the United States had brought up Gog and Magog in a conversation with Jacques Chirac. The discussion was about current events in the Middle East. After having explained that he saw Gog and Magog at work, George W. Bush added that the Biblical prophecies were coming to pass,"  Thomas Römer continues.

This conversation, which also included the Axis of Evil, took place at the beginning of 2003, a few weeks before the American intervention in Iraq. George W. Bush was then trying once again to convince Jacques Chirac to follow him in his Operation Just Cause, which the Frenchman obstinately refused to do.

As neither Jacques Chirac nor his advisers had understood the American President's reference, Paris got to work. Since George W. Bush belongs to the evangelical Christian movement,  the Elysée turned to French Protestants, who transmitted the request to Thomas Römer. "There is nothing unusual about that," the UNIL researcher continues. "We often collaborate on scientific matters with our neighbors."

So the Lausanne theologian was now given the task of enlightening the French President on Gog and Magog, a work which this specialist in the Old Testament was happy to do, and about which he speaks for the first time today, now that Jacques Chirac has retired, and that this episode belongs to history.

Magog at the Guildhall, London

An uncertain and unclear text

"I wrote a one-page paper which explained the theological foundations of Gog and Magog, two creatures who appear in Genesis and especially in two very obscure chapters of the Book of Ezekiel, in the Old Testament,"  the UNIL theologian remembers, before adding that on more than one account, Ezekiel is a disconcerting book.

"The transcription which has come down to us is not certain, the names that are cited pose a problem, and the text is difficult," Thomas Römer adds. If that were not enough to embroil the 21st-century reader, this book "also contains a message that is a bit hidden. It is part of a kind of writing that speculates on the future, in a cryptic language, and is destined for initiates," the UNIL researcher explains.

However, it is not necessary to be an expert in exoteric studies to understand the outline of this apocalyptic prophecy. In chapters 38 and 39, the authors of the Book of Ezekiel added a vision according to which a great world army will form, and that this coalition of peoples will bring a final battle upon Israel. "This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to take advantage of this conflict to wipe out the enemies of his people before a new age begins," Thomas Römer goes on.

Gog, ally or Prince of Magog?

In his coalition, the author of this text places peoples known to archeologists, like the Persians, the Nubians, the Assyrians, and the Kushites. He adds other names which perplex historians, but which leave no doubt as to the sense of the prophecy. The army that is on the march is huge, and assembles peoples come from all over, but mainly from north of Israel.

According to this text, Ezekiel also announces that this great coalition will be brought together by a certain Gog, perhaps supported by Magog. In different translations of the Bible, one can read "Gog and Magog," "Gog from Magog," "Gog, in the land of Magog," or even "Gog, prince of Magog."

"These names are difficult to decode," Thomas Römer emphasizes, "like the names of Meshek and Toubal, which are also associated with the coalition, and which are also enigmatic."

Recent Hypotheses

This enigmatic Gog has aroused speculation for more than twenty centuries. Today, George W. Bush is probably looking for him in the direction of Iran, which covets atomic weapons, after having tracked him down to Iraq. Before him, another American president [also] believed in the imminent realization of Ezekiel's prophecy.

"As Ronald Reagan knew the Bible well, he believed that the Cold War and the existence of the atomic bomb made it possible for the prophecy of Ezekiel to come to pass, therefore that the moment had come," Thomas Römer continues.

"Because Gog is an enemy who comes from north of Israel, and because Meshek can easily be connected to Moscow, people who read Ezekiel 20 or 25 years ago often associated Gog with communist Russia. They also noticed that the Biblical text says that Gog is said to be "at the head" of this coalition. Now, in Hebrew,  "head" is "rosh." From "rosh," it's easy to get "Russia," therefore communist Russia," says the UNIL theologian, smiling.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall swept away this hypothesis, the imminence of the apocalypse seemed to fade away. For rationalist readers like Thomas Römer, the "threat"  even disappeared more than 2000 years ago.

Gygos, Alexander, and Nero

Because not all the people who read Ezekiel dissect current affairs with the goal of finding there the signs of the arrival of Gog and his apocalyptic armies. Many historians and theologians seek his trace, rather, in the past. "Some researchers have identified Gog with a certain Gygos, who was a king of Anatolia in the seventh century BC. He could be at the origin of this apocalyptic text. I think it is the same process as in the case of the apocalyptic prophecies of Daniel, which concern the great enemy of the time, Antiochus IV."

If one adds to this that many researchers believe that the [Roman] emperor Nero is the famous 666 evoked in the Apocalypse of John, that the Great Whore is Rome, and that the fall announced is that of the Roman Empire, it is noticeable that the past can explain all the apocalyptic Biblical prophecies, a historical analysis that Thomas Römer tends to favor.

The prophecy of Ezekiel would in that case be linked, if one believes the UNIL researcher, to the travels of Alexander the Great. "The arrival of hellenism [Greek culture] in the Middle East constituted a major culture shock," Thomas Römer explains. To the point that the Bible has kept many traces of the passage of the Macedonian king, notably the oracles on the taking of [the city of] Tyre. This episode doubtlessly led people to develop a chronology, to reflect on the succession of reigns, to evoke the advent of [new] forces, and to speculate on the end of times and the irruption of a new time."

No Apocalypse Without Reconstruction of the Temple

The fact remains that not everyone reads the Old Testament as rationally as Thomas Römer. We must therefore state to our most nervous readers that it is not enough for a coalition of countries to attack Israel for the End Times to come. "There is a long section about the reconstruction of the Temple, and this reconstruction is, for certain currents of Judaism, the necessary condition for the return of the Messiah."

This reconstruction of the Temple of Jerusalem is detailed at length in Ezekiel, which consecrates interminable chapters to it, before specifying that the Temple must be rebuilt at its initial location, that is, the famous Temple Mount, in Jerusalem, where today there stands one of the most sacred spots in Islam, the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

In other words, it would require a truly apocalyptic train of circumstances for the conditions evoked in the prophecy to be reunited.

Ezekiel smoothes the way for American support to Israel

More widely, this text of Ezekiel explains the strong ties which have been woven between the United States and the state of Israel. "For George W. Bush, this text has political consequences," Thomas Römer goes on. " Like many American Christians, he believes that God will be on the side of Israel during the final confrontation, so, therefore, the enemies of that country will be on the side of the Antichrist. He will therefore support Israel without weakening, because he is deeply convinced that when the end time arrives, it is necessary to be on the side of Israel."

This may surprise Europeans, more used to analyses based on geopolitics, ratios of power, and oil pipeline maps than they are to religiousness when the foreign policy of the United States is in question.

"This American interpretation is effectively missed by Europeans, who have lost that relationship to Biblical texts," the UNIL theologian continues. "Germans understand George W. Bush more easily than the French or the Swiss. For an American, these questions are central. To forget religiousness in the analysis of the U.S. support for Israel is to be wrong."

Did these political reflections figure in the one-page report that Thomas Römer sent to the French President at the beginning of 2003? "No. I sent a Biblical note. One one page, I explained the context, I explained that it was an apocalyptic prophecy, with a cosmic battle of peoples. I spoke of Gygos and I said when it was written. And I have not heard back either from Jacques Chirac or his advisers."

     --Jocelyn Rochat (who by the way is a man; a woman would be named "Jocelyne"), editor-in-chief of Allez savoir, a university magazine of the University of Lausanne, in Switzerland, in September 2007. The French-language original can be seen here.

This is my translation of the article.

Oddly, Gog and Magog are said to be protectors of Great Britain-- I wonder if George W. Bush knows this.

Top photo: Magog at Guildhall, London. Middle photo: Gog and Magog at the Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, London. Below: Gog and Magog in the Lord Mayor's Parade, London.

Bush, Chirac, Gog and Magog

In 2003, Thomas Römer,  a theology professor at the University of Lausanne [Switzerland], received a telephone call from the Elysée Palace [in Paris, home of the President of France]. Jacques Chirac’s advisers wanted to know more about Gog and Magog…. two mysterious names that had been spoken by George W. Bush as he was trying to persuade France to go to war at his side in Iraq. In its September [2007] issue, the University of Lausanne (UNIL)’s magazine, Allez savoir, reveals this story, which might seem fantastical if, as Jocelyn Rochat, editor-in-chief of Allez savoir,  emphasizes, it did not reveal the religious basis of Bush’s politics.

Apocalyptic Prophecy. Bush is said to have declared to Chirac that Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East, and the Biblical Prophecies were being accomplished. It was a few weeks before the intervention in Iraq. The French president, to whom the names of Gog and Magog meant nothing, was stupefied.

In Allez savoir, Thomas Römer explains that Gog and Magog are two creatures who appear in Genesis, and especially in the two most obscure chapters of the Book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament: an apocalyptic prophecy of a worldwide army bringing a final battle to Israel.

“This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to take advantage of this conflict to wipe out the enemies of his people before a new age begins,” Thomas Römer continues.

According to him, George W. Bush is not the first to have looked for an incarnation of Gog and Magog on earth. Ronald Reagan believed that the Cold War and the existence of the atomic bomb were making the prophecy of Ezekiel a possible reality.

If the University of Lausanne is revealing today the explanations given by Thomas Römer to Jacques Chirac, it is because the latter has left office. For Jocelyn Rochat, this little private secret of international politics raises a large question: our lack of religious culture, the lack of knowledge of Scripture, at a time when religious foundations, more often than one might want to believe, are determining political and military decisions. Religiousness is not confined to a private sphere, Rochat concludes. It is a parameter to take into account “or you will understand nothing about the current direction of the world.”

    --Article by Jacques Sterchi of La Liberté, a Swiss daily newspaper, in rue89.com, a French blog written off-duty by professional journalists. 17 September 2007.

Note from Sedulia: I do find it hard to believe that an educated man had never heard of Gog and Magog. Today's France is  astonishingly irreligious for a country that was once called "the eldest daughter of the Church."

En 2003, le professeur de théologie de l'Université de Lausanne Thomas Römer reçoit un coup de téléphone du palais de l'Elysée. Les conseillers de Jacques Chirac souhaitent en savoir plus sur Gog et Magog… Deux noms mystérieux qui ont été prononcés par George W. Bush alors qu'il tentait de convaincre la France d'entrer en guerre à ses côtés en Irak. Dans sa livraison de septembre, la revue de l'Université de Lausanne (UNIL) " Allez savoir" révèle cette histoire qui pourrait sembler rocambolesque si, comme le souligne le rédacteur en chef d'" Allez savoir" Jocelyn Rochat, elle ne révélait pas les soubassements religieux de la politique de Bush.

Prophétie apocalyptique Bush aurait déclaré à Chirac que Gog et Magog étaient à l'œuvre au Proche-Orient, et que les prophéties bibliques étaient en train de s'accomplir. C'était quelques semaines avant l'intervention en Irak. Stupéfaction du président français, à qui les noms de Gog et Magog ne disent rien.

Dans " Allez savoir" , Thomas Römer précise : Gog et Magog sont deux créatures qui apparaissent dans la Genèse, et surtout dans deux chapitres des plus obscurs du " Livre d'Ezéchiel" de l'Ancien Testament. Prophétie apocalyptique d'une armée mondiale livrant bataille finale à Israël.

" Cette confrontation est voulue par Dieu, qui veut profiter de ce conflit pour faire table rase des ennemis de son peuple, avant que ne débute un âge nouveau" , poursuit Thomas Römer.

Pour lui, George W. Bush n'est pas le premier à chercher une incarnation de Gog et Magog sur terre. Ronald Reagan avait estimé que la guerre froide et l'existence de la bombe atomique rendaient réalisable la prophétie d'Ezéchiel…

Si l'Université de Lausanne révèle aujourd'hui les explications fournies par Thomas Römer à Jacques Chirac, c'est que ce dernier a quitté l'Elysée. Pour Jocelyn Rochat, ce petit secret d'alcôve de la politique internationale soulève une vaste question : notre inculture religieuse, la méconnaissance des Ecritures, à l'heure où les soubassements religieux sont beaucoup plus déterminants que l'on voudrait bien le croire dans les décisions politiques et militaires. Le religieux n'est pas confiné à la sphère privée, conclut Jocelyn Rochat. Un paramètre à prendre en compte, " sous peine de ne plus rien comprendre à la marche actuelle du monde" .

Georges Moustaki: In the Mediterranean

In this basin where
children with black eyes play
there are three continents
and centuries of history,
prophets of the gods,
the Messiah in person.
There is a fair summer there
that fears no autumn,
in the Mediterranean.

There is a smell of blood
floating on its banks
and martyrised countries
like so many open wounds,
barbed-wire islands,
walls that imprison.
There is a fair summer there
that fears no autumn,
in the Mediterranean.

There are olive trees
dying under bombs
in the place where
the first dove appeared,
forgotten people
harvested by war.
There is a fair summer there
that fears no autumn,
in the Mediterranean.

In this basin, I played
when I was a child.
I had my feet in the water.
I breathed the wind.
My playmates
have become men,
the brothers of those
the world has abandoned,
in the Mediterranean.

The sky is in mourning
above the Parthenon,
and "freedom" is no longer
said in Spanish.
But we can go on dreaming
of Athens and Barcelona.
There is still a fair summer there
that fears no autumn,
in the Mediterranean.

--Georges Moustaki (1934- ) was born in Alexandria, Egypt. His parents were Sephardic Jews from Greece. He moved to France in 1951, and wrote this song in 1971, when Greece and Spain were under dictatorships. Since then Greece and Spain have become democracies, but the Mediterranean still sees wars and conflict. This is my favorite song of Moustaki's. You can buy it on iTunes. There is not a good version of Moustaki singing it on the internet right now, but you can hear him singing part of it more weakly with a Catalán singer here.

En Méditerranée

Dans ce bassin où jouent
Des enfants aux yeux noirs,
Il y a trois continents
Et des siècles d'histoire,
Des prophètes des dieux,
Le Messie en personne.
Il y a un bel été
Qui ne craint pas l'automne,
En Méditerranée.

Il y a l'odeur du sang
Qui flotte sur ses rives
Et des pays meurtris
Comme autant de plaies vives,
Des îles barbelées,
Des murs qui emprisonnent.
Il y a un bel été
Qui ne craint pas l'automne,
En Méditerranée.

Il y a des oliviers
Qui meurent sous les bombes
Là où est apparue
La première colombe,
Des peuples oubliés
Que la guerre moissonne.
Il y a un bel été
Qui ne craint pas l'automne,
En Méditerranée.

Dans ce bassin, je jouais
Lorsque j'étais enfant.
J'avais les pieds dans l'eau.
Je respirais le vent.
Mes compagnons de jeux
Sont devenus des hommes,
Les frères de ceux-là
Que le monde abandonne,
En Méditerranée.

Le ciel est endeuillé,
Par-dessus l'Acropole
Et liberté ne se dit plus
En espagnol.
On peut toujours rêver,
D'Athènes et Barcelone.
Il reste un bel été
Qui ne craint pas l'automne,
En Méditerranée.

Luis de Góngora y Argote: The hours that are filing down the days, the days that are gnawing down the years

Of the deceitful brevity of life

The arrow goes less quickly to its target,
that it bites sharply; the straining chariot
does not race more silently
over the mute sand to the finish line,

than hastily and secretly our age
runs to its end. To whomever doubts this,
proud as he may be of naked reason,
each repeated Sun is a comet.

Carthage admits this, and you don't know it?
You risk danger, Licio, if you keep on
following shadows and embracing illusions.

The hours will not pardon you easily;
the hours that are filing down the days,
the days that are gnawing down the years.

--Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561-1627). This is one of the most famous poems in the Spanish language.

De la brevedad engañosa de la vida

Menos solicitó veloz saeta
destinada señal, que mordió aguda;
agonal carro por la arena muda
no coronó con más silencio meta,

que presurosa corre, que secreta,
a su fin nuestra edad. A quien lo duda,
fiera que sea de razón desnuda,
cada Sol repetida es un cometa.

¿Confiésalo Cartago, y tú lo ignoras?
Peligro corres, Licio, si porfías
en seguir sombras y abrazar engaños.

Mal te perdonarán a ti las horas;
las horas que limando están los días,
los días que royendo están los años.

Charles Baudelaire: The Clock

Clock! sinister god, frightening, impassive,
whose hand threatens us and says, “Remember!
Soon throbbing aches will be planted
in your fearful heart as if in a target.

Mist-like Pleasure will fly off toward the horizon
like a sylph at the back of the stage;
each instant eats away a bite of the delight
each man is given for his whole season.

Three thousand six hundred times an hour, the second
whispers “Remember!” With its insect voice,
NOW says quickly, “I am in the past,
and I have pumped away your life with my dreadful siphon!”

Souviens-toi! Remember! Prodigal! Esto memor!
(My metal throat speaks all languages.)
Minutes, foolish mortal, are the base mineral
that you must not let go of without extracting their gold!

Remember that Time is a greedy gambler
who wins without cheating, always! It’s the law,
day declines; night grows; remember!
The abyss is always hungry; the water-clock runs dry.

Soon the hour will sound when divine Chance
or august Virtue, your still-virgin spouse,
where Repentance itself (oh! the last refuge!),
where everything will tell you: "Die, old coward! It’s too late!”

--Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), in Les Fleurs du Mal

Horloge! dieu sinistre, effrayant, impassible,
dont le doigt nous menace et nous dit: "Souviens-toi!
Les vibrantes Douleurs dans ton coeur plein d'effroi
se planteront bientôt comme dans une cible;

le Plaisir vaporeux fuira vers l'horizon
ainsi qu'une sylphide au fond de la coulisse;
chaque instant te dévore un morceau du délice
à chaque homme accordé pour toute sa saison.

Trois mille six cents fois par heure, la Seconde
chuchote: Souviens-toi! - Rapide, avec sa voix
d'insecte, Maintenant dit: Je suis Autrefois,
et j'ai pompé ta vie avec ma trompe immonde!

Remember! Souviens-toi! prodigue! Esto memor!
(Mon gosier de métal parle toutes les langues.)
Les minutes, mortel folâtre, sont des gangues
qu'il ne faut pas lâcher sans en extraire l'or!

Souviens-toi que le Temps est un joueur avide
qui gagne sans tricher, à tout coup! c'est la loi.
Le jour décroît; la nuit augmente; Souviens-toi!
Le gouffre a toujours soif; la clepsydre se vide.

Tantôt sonnera l'heure où le divin Hasard,
où l'auguste Vertu, ton épouse encor vierge,
où le Repentir même (oh! la dernière auberge!),
où tout te dira Meurs, vieux lâche! il est trop tard!"

A little German girl meets black American soldiers at the end of World War II

Toward the end of the war, the roar of the artillery fire in Arnsberg came ever nearer, and you could hear it all day long. The first ones went looking for white cloth to show their peaceable intentions. We spent most of our time in the bomb shelter in the house of Aunt Anne and Uncle Karl, where we sat until it was time. Till the Americans came.

We didn't know what awaited us. Were they humans, were they monsters? The Nazi propaganda had prophesied dreadful things. And then they came down the cellar steps: they were people like us, friendly people, thank God! They did not wear hobnailed boots like the German soldiers, whose footsteps always sounded like iron. They swung through the air on soft light crepe soles, that sounded shh-shh-shh-shh.

I liked that and their friendly ways. Probably, as I believe today, they thought all Germans were Nazis and had no idea how much most of us had suffered under the Nazis' rule of terror....

The Americans did steal the Leica camera that was my father's pride and joy. And a collection of Japanese coins disappeared, which perhaps lies in a Pennsylvania museum or a Nebraska garbage dump, what matter!

And how they drove their jeeps, really artistically, especially the dark-skinned Americans! They chewed gum and hurtled crazily around curves with their legs hanging out of the windows. How relieved and happy we were! The war was finished for us, finally! Now we could sleep without cares, safe as in Abraham's lap.

     --From a German-language genealogy website, Die Marnachs [the Marnach family]

Gegen Kriegsende kam das Grollen des Artilleriebeschusses in Arnsberg immer näher, man konnte es den ganzen Tag über hören. Die ersten hielten Ausschau nach weißen Laken, um ihre friedlichen Absichten zu dokumentieren. Wir verbrachten die meiste Zeit im Luftschutzkeller im Haus von Tante Änne und Onkel Karl, wo wir auch saßen, als es soweit war. Als die Amis kamen.

Wir wussten nicht, was uns erwartete. Waren es Menschen, waren es Unmenschen? Die braune Propaganda hatte uns Schreckliches vorhergesagt. Und da kamen sie die Kellertreppe herunter: Menschen wie wir, freundliche Menschen, Gott sei Dank! Sie trugen nicht die Knobelbecherstiefel, wie die deutschen Soldaten, deren Schritte immer klangen wie ein eisernes rätsch-rätsch-rätsch-rätsch. Sie swingten durchs Leben auf weichen leisen Kreppsohlen, die klangen scht-scht-scht-scht.    

Das gefiel mir, auch ihre menschenfreundliche Art. Wahrscheinlich, so denke ich heute, hielten sie alle Deutschen für Nazis und ahnten nicht, wie die meisten von uns unter der braunen Schreckensherrschaft gelitten hatten....

Die Amis klauten uns zwar die Leica, die der ganze Stolz meines Vaters gewesen war. Und eine japanische Münzsammlung war weg, die jetzt vielleicht in einem Museum in PA oder auf einer Müllkippe in Nebraska liegt, was solls! -        

Und wie sie ihre Jeeps fuhren, echt artistisch, besonders die dunkelhäutigen Amerikaner! Sie kauten Kaugummi, sausten wie wahnsinnig um die Kurven, und hatten dabei noch die Beine aus dem Autofenster hängen. Wie waren wir erleichtert und glücklich! Der Krieg war zu Ende für uns, endlich! Nun konnten wir ohne Sorgen schlafen, sicher wie in Abrahams Schoß.