As The 100th Anniversary Of The First Year Of World War I (Remember The War To End All Wars) Continues ... Some Remembrances-Poet’s Corner-German Jewish Poets   

LION FEUCHTWANGER (1884-1958)

SONG OF THE FALLEN

The skin dries up on our foreheads.

A worm our brains inside us shreds

The flesh in meadows rots all round

Our mouths blocked  up by stones and ground

We wait.

The flesh decays, the bone is dry;

We ask one question: why, oh why?

This question will not go away:

Why, why and why? Alack the day!

We wait.

Our mouths are stopped with earth and dust

Our question bursts out: is this just?

The ground that covers us bursts out

We restlessly the answers doubt.

We wait

We, the earth’s seed, await in fear

The answers come, the answers near

Woe if it strikes! Hail whom it spares!

The answer’s slow but comes: who hears?

We wait.

Translated by Peter Appelbaum