by Tom Kuhn
On Schiller’s poem ‘The Bell’
[Über Schillers Gedicht ‘Die Glocke’]
BFA 11, 271; 1938; P1951; D.C.
Schiller completed his poem in 1799. Brecht alludes particularly to lines 155–66. There, with the French Revolution in mind, Schiller warns against letting elemental forces loose.
On Schiller’s poem ‘The Bond’
[Über Schillers Gedicht ‘Die Bürgschaft’]
BFA 11, 271; 1938; P1951; D.C.
Schiller wrote his poem in 1798, taking the story from Hyginus’s Fabulae. The “debtor,” having tried to assassinate the tyrant, is to be crucified, but begs three days to go and see his sister married. He leaves his best friend behind as hostage, to die in his place if he fails to return.
On Goethe’s poem ‘The God and the Bayadere’
[Über Goethes Gedicht ‘Der Gott und die Bajadere’]
BFA 11, 272; 1938; P1951; D.C.
Goethe wrote ‘The God and the Bayadere’ in 1797. Brecht knew the poem as a schoolboy, sang it to the guitar, and made sketches for a prose version of the story.
On Kleist’s play The Prince of Homburg
[Über Kleists Stück Prinz Friedrich von Homburg]
BFA 11, 272; 1938; P1939; D.C.
The Prince of Homburg, written in 1809–11, was Kleist’s last play. It ends—almost exactly—with this sonnet’s final line. There is a good deal more at issue in the play than Brecht’s reading suggests.
Sonnet on the legacy
[Sonett vom Erbe]
BFA 14, 424; c. 1938; P1965; D.C.
Fragment. This and the next three were written around the same time as the sonnet Studies and in the context of that collection.
On the death of the poet Thomas Otway
[Über den Tod des Dichters Thomas Otway]
BFA 14, 424; c. 1938; P1982; T.K.
The source here is Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (London, 1793). Otway’s Venice preserv’d is a verse play of 1682, translated into German by Hugo von Hofmannsthal in 1905. The manner of Otway’s death is not recorded, although he did die in poverty. Alexander Pope was born, into considerable wealth, three years after Otway’s death in 1685.
On inductive love
[Über induktive Liebe]
BFA 14, 425; c. 1938; P1965; T.K.
Francis Bacon describes “induction,” the empirical method of the observation of individual cases leading to general conclusions, in his Novum Organum (1620).
When I’d reported to the couple, thus . . .
[Als ich den beiden so berichtet hatte]
BFA 14, 417; c. 1938; P1967; T.K.
This comments on the story of Paolo and Francesca in Dante’s Divine Comedy.
UNCOLLECTED POEMS 1939–1940
Bad time for poetry
[Schlechte Zeit für Lyrik]
BFA 14, 432; 1939; P1956; T.K.
Nature poems 1, 2
[Naturgedichte 1, 2]
BFA 14, 429; 1939; P1964; T.K.
How future ages will judge our writers
[Wie künftige Zeiten unsere Schriftsteller beurteilen werden]
BFA 14, 433; 1939; P1939; T.K.
This poem was originally written to celebrate the seventieth birthday of Martin Andersen Nexø, a Danish writer celebrated for his realist portrayals of the working class. It was several times published in Brecht’s lifetime, ultimately with the title by which it is perhaps better known, ‘Die Literatur wird durchforscht werden’ (‘Literature will be searched through’).
The idea of “friendliness,” invoked in the last stanza, was becoming increasingly important for Brecht; it will crop up in many more poems of the war period (including the next one). It is his personal morphing of fraternité, a revolutionary potential that does not derive from “bourgeois” morality.
Are the people infallible?
[Ist das Volk unfehlbar?]
BFA 14, 435; 1939; P1964; T.K.
Written when Brecht heard of the execution of his old friend, the Soviet writer and theater man Sergei Tretyakov.
A proletarian mother’s speech to her sons at the outbreak of war
[Rede einer proletarischen Mutter an ihre Söhne bei Kriegsausbruch]
BFA 14, 436; 1939; P1965; T.K.
Report of one who failed
[Bericht über einen Gescheiterten]
BFA 14, 439; 1939; P1964; T.K.
This and the next poem both refer to one Dr. Waldemar Goldschmidt, the onetime chief medical officer of the Vienna Rothschild Hospital, whom Brecht got to know on the Swedish island of Lidingö, his new refuge since the spring of 1939. Goldschmidt’s experiences also flowed into the prose dialogues, Refugee Conversations.
The emigrant’s lament
[Klage des Emigranten]
BFA 14, 439; 1939; P1964; T.K.
Song of the god of good fortune
[Lied des Glücksgotts]
BFA 14, 440; 1939; P1993; T.K.
This poem was written before Brecht acquired, in Los Angeles, the little Chinese sculpture of a god of happiness which then inspired further compositions, into which this song was to be integrated. See below, ‘I am the god of fortune . . .’
Fortress Europe
[Die Festung Europa]
BFA 14, 444; 1939; P1964; T.K.
The consequences of playing safe
[Die Folgen der Sicherheit]
BFA 14, 444; 1939; P1964; T.K.
Swedish landscape
[Schwedische Landschaft]
BFA 14, 452; 1939; P1964; T.K.
On Germany
[Über Deutschland]
BFA 14, 453; 1939; P1961; T.K.
Many spoke of the war . . .
[Viele sprachen vom Krieg]
BFA 14, 453; 1939; P1967; T.K.
This is one of a number of extended exercises in classicizing (if loose) hexameters that Brecht wrote around this time, partly in the context of his story ‘The trophies of Lucullus.’ They are more or less explicitly modeled on Lucretius’s De rerum natura.
Address of the dying poet to the young
[Adresse des sterbenden Dichters an die Jugend]
BFA 14, 455; c. 1939; P1964; T.K.
Note of what’s needed
[Der Zettel des Brauchens]
BFA 14, 457; c. 1939; P1956; T.K.
Li-gung’s great speech about the punishment the gods decreed for the not-eating of meat
[Die grosse Rede der Li-gung über die Strafe, welche die Götter auf das Nichtessen des Fleisches gesetzt haben]
BFA 14, 457; c. 1939; P1982; T.K.
This fragment appears to have come about during an early phase of the work on The Good Person of Szechwan, in which the hero, later Shen Te, was called Li-gung.
A question
[Eine Frage]
BFA 14, 458; c. 1939; P1993; T.K.
Questions and answers
[Fragen und Antworten]
BFA 14, 458; c. 1939; P1964; T.K.
Intervention
[Intervention]
BFA 14, 459; c. 1939; P1967; T.K.
Praise of doubt
[Lob des Zweifels]
BFA 14, 459; c. 1939; P1964; T.K.
Bad time for youth
[Schlechte Zeit für die Jugend]
BFA 14, 462; c. 1939; P1964; T.K.
On luck
[Vom Glück]
BFA 14, 462; c. 1939; P1964; T.K.
Little clouds from time to time . . .
[Hin und wieder ziehen kleine Wölkchen]
BFA 15, 7; 1940; P1993; T.K.
This is amongst the sketches for a Pluto-Revue, after Aristophanes.
Now we are refugees in Finland
[Wir sind jetzt Flüchtlinge]
BFA 15, 11; 1940; P1964; D.C.
Weigel’s props
[Die Requisiten der Weigel]
BFA 15, 11; 1940; P1964; D.C.
Over a bottle of wine
[Bei einer Flasche Wein]
BFA 15, 12; 1940; P1964; D.C
.
This is the year . . .
[Das ist dieses Jahr]
BFA 15, 12; 1940; P1967; D.C.
Now, Timon, misanthrope . . .
[Nun, Timon, Menschenfeind]
BFA 15, 14; 1940; P1967; D.C.
In July 1940 Brecht’s son Stefan gave him a copy of Kranz des Meleagros (Garland of Meleager), a collection of Greek epigrams translated by August Oehler, published in 1920. Brecht admired in them their wonderful “Gegenständlichkeit” (objective reality, feeling for the so-ness of things). This poem and the following three are his versions—for the most part he made only slight interventions—of Oehler’s translations. The encounter was of great importance in the poetry he was writing at that time—in the “Sprachwaschung” (washing the language clean) he was undertaking in such poems as ‘Weigel’s props,’ ‘My pipes,’ and ‘Finnish larder 1940’—and also much later, in the quatrains of his War Primer. He had already done a version of ‘Now, Timon, misanthrope . . .,’ after Oehler, after a poem by Callimachus of Cyrene, in 1922.
The crooked bow . . .
[Der krumme Bogen]
BFA 15, 14; 1940; P1993; D.C.
After an epigram by Mnasalcas of Plataea.
Stand there, spear of the ash-tree’s wood.
[Du Speer aus Eschenholz]
BFA 15, 14; 1940; P1993; D.C.
After an epigram by Anyte of Tegea.
In a former time I was the curving pair . . .
[Einst war ich das geschwungne Hörnerpaar]
BFA 15, 14; 1940; P1993; D.C.
After an epigram by Simmias of Rhodes.
Letters from mothers to their children in foreign parts
[Briefe der Mutter an ihre Kinder in der Ferne]
BFA 15, 18; 1940; P1964; T.K.
The broken rope . . .
[Der abgerissene Strick]
BFA 15, 20; 1940; P1964; T.K.
Possibly a note for The Good Person of Szechwan or for Me-ti. Margarete Steffin noted in the margin, “Too many agains.”
It was early in life I learnt . . .
[Frühzeitig schon lernte ich]
BFA 15, 20; 1940; P1965; T.K.
This probably refers to Brecht’s flight from Sweden to Finland in April 1940 when the Germans marched into Denmark and Norway.
In times of extreme persecution
[In den Zeiten der äussersten Verfolgung]
BFA 15, 21; 1940; P1956; T.K.
My seasons
[Meine Jahreszeiten]
BFA 15, 21; 1940; P1993; T.K.
Valse plus triste
[Valse plus triste]
BFA 15, 23; 1940; P1967; T.K.
Ziffel’s song
[Ziffels Lied]
BFA 15, 24; 1940; P1982; T.K.
Ziffel is one of the characters in the Refugee Conversations, which were written around this time, an exiled intellectual and something of an alter ego for Brecht.
Burial of the actor
[Begräbnis des Schauspielers]
BFA 15, 25; c. 1940; P1967; T.K.
According to Elisabeth Hauptmann the poem gives us a mixture of thoughts about Peter Lorre, Ernst Busch, and Brecht himself.
The loudspeaker
[Der Lautsprecher]
BFA 15, 30; c. 1940; P1965; T.K.
The willow pipe; The summer in Sörnäs
[Die Weidenpfeife; Der Sommer von Sörnäs]
BFA 15, 31; c. 1940; P1993; T.K.
These two are versions of poems by the Finnish poet Katri Vala, whom Brecht met in the autumn of 1940. Sörnäs is a district in the east of Helsinki.
Finnish folksong
[Finnisches Volkslied]
BFA 15, 32; c. 1940; P1967; T.K.
Exercise for actors
[Sprechübung für Schauspieler]
BFA 15, 34; c. 1940; P1967; T.K.
STEFFIN COLLECTION
Motto
[Dies ist nun alles]
BFA 12, 93; 1940; P1961; T.K.
Spring 1938
[Frühling 1938]
BFA 12, 95; 1938; P1949; D.C.
This is the title of this and two following numbered poems. The translation in this case is of the 1949 text, also known as ‘Der Schneesturm’ (‘The snowstorm’).
[Spring 1938] 2
BFA 12, 95; 1938; P1949; T.K.
[Spring 1938] 3
BFA 12, 95; 1938; P1949; T.K.
Also known as ‘Der Totenvogel’ (‘The bird of death’).
The cherry thief
[Der Kirschdieb]
BFA 12, 96; 1938; P1949; T.K.
1940. 1
[1940]
BFA 12, 96; 1940; P1961; T.K.
Brecht uses a word of Old Norse origin for the rocky outcrops along the Scandinavian coast. This and the following seven numbered poems exist in several variations and with various titles.
[1940] 2
BFA 12, 96; 1939; P1949; T.K.
[1940] 3
BFA 12, 97; 1938; P1951; T.K.
[1940] 4
BFA 12, 97; 1940; P1961; T.K.
When Hanns Eisler complained at the opacity of this poem Brecht gave way and gave it the title ‘Landscape in Flanders.’
[1940] 5
BFA 12, 97; c. 1940; P1961; T.K.
Brecht lived on the island of Lidingö by Stockholm from May 1939 to April 1940.
[1940] 6
BFA 12, 97; 1940; P1949; T.K.
Also known as ‘Die Antwort’ (‘The answer’). There are variants of this poem in which the foreign language is French.
[1940] 7
BFA 12, 98; 1940; P1961; T.K.
[1940] 8
BFA 12, 98. 1941; P1949; T.K.
Also known as ‘1941. Die Tür’ (‘The door’). With German troops storming through Scandinavia and U-boats patrolling the Atlantic there were indeed few ways out of Europe, other than through the Soviet Union—which was, eventually, the route he took.
To my Danish refuge
[An die dänische Zufluchtsstätte]
BFA 12, 99; 1940; P1961; T.K.
Brecht pinned to one of the beams of his house in Svendborg the motto, derived from Lenin, “The truth is concrete.”
Finnish larder 1940
[Finnische Gutsspeisekammer 1940]
BFA 12, 99; 1940; P1961; T.K.
Brecht dedicated this poem to his host in Finland, Hella Wuolijoki, who owned a country estate at Kausala, some two hours northeast of Helsinki.
Memorial for the fallen in Hitler’s war against France
[Gedenktafeln für im Krieg des Hitler gegen Frankreich Gefallene: 1 Dass er verrecke; 2 Ihr Leute]
BFA 12, 99; 1940; P1941; T.K.
These short epitaph poems are written in the voice of German soldiers killed in France. Brecht recycled them and the next poem (as “photo-epigrams”) in the collection of short poems and press photographs that he put together in the last years of the war and called Kriegsfibel (War Primer). The photograph that accompanied the first was of a simple wooden cross in the mud, labeled “YNCONNU”; the second, now referring to the Polish campaign, appeared alongside an image of German military vehicles sweeping across open countryside.
Memorial for four thousand drowned in Hitler’s war against Norway
[Gedenktafel für 4000, die im Krieg des Hitler gegen Norwegen versenkt wurden]
BFA 12, 100; 1940; P1955; T.K.
In War Primer this appears under a photograph of a bleak and rocky shoreline.
Ruuskanen’s horse
[Das Pferd des Ruuskanen]
BFA 12, 101; 1941; P1941; T.K.
Brecht takes an episode from Finnish history for this poem. Nivala is a northern city in Finland. He calls this one a “chronicle,” linking back to the ‘Chronicles’ of Svendborg Poems.
Parade of the old New; The labour of the great Babel; The stone fisher; The god of war; The roll call of the vices and the virtues; The dispute Anno Domini 1938
[Parade des alten Neuen] (1939), [Die Niederkunft der grossen Babel] (c. 1938), [D
er Steinfischer] (c. 1938/39), [Der Kriegsgott] (1941), [Appell der Laster und Tugenden] (1939), [Der Disput anno Domini 1938] (1939)
BFA 12, 104ff., 111; P1939 (Der Disput), otherwise P1949; T.K.
In these prose anecdotes, or prose poems, Brecht develops secular “revelations” about the nature of Hitler’s fascism. He gave the group the heading ‘Aus den Visionen’ (‘From the Visions’ or ‘Revelations’). There are frequent biblical echoes.
Everywhere so much to see
[Überall vieles zu sehen]
BFA 15, 57; 1941; P1964; T.K.
Never formally part of the Steffin Collection, this belongs in style with the ‘Visions.’ Brecht took up the form again in 1948/49. See ‘Last night I saw the Great Hag . . .’ and the following, in Part V.
The teach-me-better
[Der Belehrmich]
BFA 15, 56; c. 1941; P1964; T.K.
This and the next five are not included in Brecht’s later arrangements for the Steffin Collection. This poem refers to Caspar Neher’s painting Old Man, which he made in Augsburg and which accompanied Brecht throughout the exile.
In the bath
[(Im Bade)]
BFA 12, 109; 1940; P1965; T.K.
To my little radio
[Auf den kleinen Radioapparat]
BFA 12, 109; 1940; P1961; T.K.
This and the next two Brecht called “Finnish epigrams.”
My pipes
[Die Pfeifen]
BFA 12, 109; 1940; P1961; T.K.
I read of the tank battle
[Ich lese von der Panzerschlacht]
BFA 12, 110; 1940; P1941; T.K.
Finnish landscape
[Finnische Landschaft]
BFA 12, 110; 1940; P1961; T.K.
In a sonnet Brecht protests at the studied neutrality of Finland, where Swedish and Finnish are the two languages.
SONGS FOR LIFE OF GALILEO, MOTHER COURAGE, THE GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN, AND OTHER PLAYS
The scripture says . . .
