The Poetry Show: May Day In Verse -- Bertolt Brecht

 

May 3, 7 AM EST

www.enlightenradio.org

Bertolt Brecht

the carpet weavers of

kuyan-bulak honor Lenin

1

often and copiously honor has been done

to comrade lenin. there are busts and statues.

cities are called after him, and children.

speeches are amde in many languages

there are meetings and demonstrations

from shanghai to chicago in lenin's honor.

but this is how he was honored by

the carpet weavers of kuyan-bulak

a little township in southern Turkestan.

every evening there twenty carpet weavers

shaking with fever rise from their primitive looms

fever is rife: the railway station

is full of the hum of mosquitoes, a thick cloud

that rises from the swamp behind the old camels' graveyard.

but the railway train which

every two weeks brings water and smoke, brings

the news also one day

that the day approaches honoring comrade lenin.

and the people of kuyan-bulak

carpet weavers, poor people

decide that in their township too comrade Lenin's

plaster bust shall be put up.

then, as the collection is made for the bust

they all stand

shaking with fever and offer

their hard-earned kopeks with trembling hands.

and the red army man Stepa Gamalev, who

carefully counts and nimutely watches

sees how ready they are to honor Lenin, and he is glad

but he also sees their unsteady hands

and he suddenly proposes

that the money for the bust be used to buy petroleum

to be poured on the swamp behind the camels' graveyard

where the mosquitoes breed that carry

the fever germ.

and so to fight the fever at kuyan-bulak, thus

honoring the dead but

never to be forgotten

comrade Lenin.

they resolved to do this. on the day of the ceremony thy carried

their dented buckets filled with black petroleum

one after the other

and poured it over the swamp

so they helped themselves by honoring Lenin, an

had understood him well.

2

we have heard how the people of kuyan-bulak

honored lenin. when in the evening

the petroleum had been bought and poured on the swamp

a man rose at that meeting, demanding

that a plaque be affixed on the railway station

recording these events and containing

precise details too of their altered plan, the exchange of

the bust for lenin for a barrel of fever-destroying oil.

and all this in honor of Lenin.

and they did this as well

and put up the plaque.

bb

The AGitator

"Burial of the Agitator in a Zinc Coffin"
by Bertolt Brecht

Here, in this zinc coffin, 
Lies a dead man,
Or else his leg and his head,
Or still less of him,
Or nothing at all since he was
An agitator.

He has been identified as the primary cause of evil.
Shove him under the earth. At most
Only his wife will accompany him to the carrion pit,
Since whoever goes with him 
Is also a marked man.

What lies in the zinc coffin
Has agitated in favor of many things:
For eating-your-fill
For a roof-over-your-head
For feeding-your-children
For holding-out-for-the-last-penny
And for solidarity with all
The oppressed who are like you
And in favor of thinking.

And what lies in the zinc coffin has said
That another economic systems was necessary
And that you, the massed millions of labour,
Must take over the leadership.
Otherwise the future will hold nothing better for you.

And because of what is in the zinc coffin has said this
It ended in the zinc coffin and must be shoved under the earth
As an agitator who incited you to unrest.
And whichever of you speaks of eating his fill
And whichever of you wants a roof over his head
And whichever of you holds out for the last penny
And whichever of you wants to feed his children
And whichever of you thinks and proclaims his solidarity 
With all who are oppressed,
He shall from now until eternity
End in the zinc coffin like this man here
As an agitator and be shoved under the earth.