Selected Poems Quotes

“The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread.
When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out "stop!"

When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.”
― Bertolt Brecht, Selected Poems: The Influential 20th Century German Poet's Accessible Bilingual Collection for Modern Readers

“Those Who Take the Meat from the Table

Teach Contentment.
Those for whom the taxes are destined
Demand sacrifice.
Those who eat their fill speak to the hungry
Of wonderful times to come.
Those who lead the country into the abyss
Call ruling too difficult
For ordinary men.

(Die das Fleisch wegnehmen vom Tisch

Lehren Zufriedenheit.
Die, für die die Gabe bestimmt ist
Verlangen Opfermut.
Die Sattgefressenen sprechen zu den Hungernden
Von den grossen Zeiten, die kommen werden.
Die das Reich in den Abgrund führen
Nennen das Regieren zu schwer
Für den einfachen Mann.)”
― Bertolt Brecht, Selected Poems: The Influential 20th Century German Poet's Accessible Bilingual Collection for Modern Readers

“Ah, we've had so many masters,
Swine or eagle, lean or fat one:
Some were tiers, some hyenas,
Still we fed this one and that one.
Whether one is better than the other:
Ah, one boot is always like another
When it treads upon you. What I say about them
Is we need no other masters: we can do without them!

Yes, the wheel is always turning madly,
Neither side stays up or down,
But the water underneath fares badly
For it has to make the wheel go round.

(Ach, wir hatten viele Herren
Hatten Tiger und Hyänen
Hatten Adler, hatten Schweine
Doch wir nährten den und jenen.
Ob sie besser waren oder schlimmer:
Ach, der Stiefel glich dem Stiefel immer
Und uns trat er. Ihr versteht, ich meine
Dass wir keine andern Herren brauchen, sondern keine!

Freilich dreht das Rad sich immer weiter
Dass, was oben ist, nicht oben bleibt.
Aber für das Wasser unten heisst das leider
Nur dass es das Rad halt ewig treibt.)”
― Bertolt Brecht, Selected Poems: The Influential 20th Century German Poet's Accessible Bilingual Collection for Modern Readers

“Ah, we've had so many masters,
Swine or eagle, lean or fat one:
Some were tiers, some hyenas,
Still we fed this one and that one.
Whether one is better than the other:
Ah, one boot is always like another
When it treads upon you. What I say about them
Is we need no other masters: we can do without them!

Yes, the wheel is always turning madly,
Neither side stays up or down,
But the water underneath fares badly
For it has to make the wheel go round.

(Ach, wir hatten viele Herren
Hatten Tiger und Hyänen
Hatten Adler, hatten Schweine
Doch wir nährten den und jenen.
Ob sie besser waren oder schlimmer:
Ach, der Stiefel glich dem Stiefel immer
Und uns trat er. Ihr versteht, ich meine
Dass wir keine andern Herren brauchen, sondern keine!

Freilich dreht das Rad sich immer weiter
Dass, was oben ist, nicht oben bleibt.
Aber für das Wasser unten heisst das leider
NurL dass es das Rad halt ewig treibt.)”
― Bertolt Brecht, Selected Poems: The Influential 20th Century German Poet's Accessible Bilingual Collection for Modern Readers