Bertold Brecht’s Solution to the Current Crisis

    One of the things I miss at the moment is not having among my current face friends someone who is head over heels for Brecht. You have to be seriously messed up in a deep and ultimately positive way to appreciate Brecht. I cannot remember a time in which trust in government has been so low. Brecht’s famous poem, the allusions of which are obscure and somehow palpable at the same time 60 years later, is worth quoting and re-translating in our context. Suffice it to say that Brecht alludes to the Uprising of_1953_in_East_Germany.

Die Lösung

Nach dem Aufstand des 17. Juni
Ließ der Sekretär des Schriftstellerverbands
In der Stalinallee Flugblätter verteilen
Auf denen zu lesen war, daß das Volk
Das Vertrauen der Regierung verscherzt habe
Und es nur durch verdoppelte Arbeit
zurückerobern könne. Wäre es da
Nicht doch einfacher, die Regierung
Löste das Volk auf und
Wählte ein anderes?

(Bertolt Brecht, 1953)

The Solution

After the uprising of the 17th of June
the Secretary of the Writers Union
distributed flyers in the Stalinallee.
On them it was made plain that the people
had lost the trust of the government
and could gain it back only
by redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
in fact for the government
to dissolve the people and
elect another?

The less said about the sinister connotations of the title of the poem, the better. 

Comments

[dan]

I love Brecht! Although maybe I should hesitate to say that, depending on how I feel about being "seriously messed up in a deep but ultimately positive way." ;)

Don't know if you've heard the Tom Waits cover of Brecht's "What Keeps Mankind Alive" but it's something that pretty much any person concerned with religion should hear. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkQG9MH4HHg

[JohnFH]

Hi Dan,

That's a nice video. Here is the text in German, which is so much better:

MAC

Ihr Herrn, die ihr uns lehrt, wie man brav leben
Und Sund und Missetat vermeiden kann
Zuerst müßt ihr uns was zu fressen geben
Dann könnt ihr reden: Damit fängt es an.
Ihr, die ihr euren Wanst und unsre Bravheit liebt
Das eine wisset ein für allemal.
Wie ihr es immer dreht und wie ihr’s immer schiebt
Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.
Erst muß es möglich sein auch armen Leuten
Vom großen Brotlaib sich ihr Teil zu schneiden

HINTER DER SZENE

Denn wovon lebt der Mensch ?

MAC

Denn wovon lebt der Mensch? Indem er stündlich
Den Menschen peinigt, auszieht, anfällt,
abwürgt und frißt.
Nur dadurch lebt der Mensch, daß er so gründlich
Vergessen kann, daß er ein Mensch doch ist.

CHOR

Ihr Herren, bildet euch nur da nichts ein:
Der Mensch lebt nur von Missetat allein!

The English translation in the video is a free paraphrase.

[JohnFH]

Source: http://www.dicoseunpo.it/dicoseunpo/W_files/Dreigroschen.pdf

[TheraP]

Mutter Courage: I recall it being staged more than once in Washington, DC during the mid-60's when I was in college. Probably due to the Vietnam War, I suppose. But the message suits our times very well.

Thanks for the reminder!

(And may I say, your encyclopedic "reach" constantly astounds me!)

[JohnFH]

Hi Thera,

How come I'm not surprised that you appreciate Brecht, despite and even because, if you are like me, of the very hard angles he develops.

I thought at first that a comparison of government and governed in the US of 2011 with the government and the governed in the DDR of 1953 might be far-fetched, and perhaps it is. Still, the generalized amnesia, gift of denial, polarization, and lack of movement toward a workable compromise common to both junctures is startling.