Happy Labor's Day from Bertolt Brecht and The Orange Press!
Questions from a workingman who reads.
Who built Thebes of the Seven Gates?
In books you find the names of kings – did kings
Haul up the chunks of stone?
And Babylon, so many times destroyed – who
Built it up again so many times? In which of the houses
Of Lima, glittering with gold
Did the construction workers live?
At night, when the work on the Great Wall of China
Was done, where did the masons go? Great Rome
Is full of triumphal arches. Who raised them, who did Caesar triumph
Over? Did Byzantium praised in so many songs
Have only palaces?
(Even in legendary Atlantis, when the sea broke in, the drowning
Shouted for their slaves.)
Young Alexander conquered India
All by himself?
Caesar conquered Gaul. Didn’t he have a cook at least?
And Philip of Spain who cried when the Armada sank
Did others cry as well?
Frederick the Great triumphed in the Seven-Year War. Apart from him
Who else?
Who cooked the grub for the victory party?
A great man every decade. Who pays the bill?
So many tales
So many questions.
[transl. PW]