Rabble
22nd September 2005, 05:21 AM
You must not sleep!
by Arnulf Øverland, published 1935 (translated as best she could by Camilla Sandman)
I awoke one night from a curious dream,
a voice was to me speaking,
distant as an underground stream-
and I rose: What is it you want of me?
"You must not sleep! You must not sleep!
You must not think that you've only dreamed!
"Yesterday I was convicted
Tonight the gallows rose in the courtyard.
They will come for me at five tomorrow!
The whole basement here is full
And all garrisons have basements upon basements.
We lie and wait in stonecold cells,
we lie and rot in darkened wholes!
We do not know, what we lie and wait for,
and who might be the next they get.
We moan, we scream - but can you hear?
Can you absoloutely nothing do?
No one may see us.
No one may know, what is comig for us.
Even more:
No one can believe what here daily occurs!
You think, it cannot be true,
this evil humans cannot be.
There must be among them those decent?
Brother, you have still much to learn!
They said: You shall give your life, if so needed.
And now we've given - in vain, in vain!
The world has forgotten! We're decieved!
You must not sleep again tonight!
You must not go to your merchant's place
and think of what gives losses and gains!
You must not blame acers and cattle
and say that's work enough for you!
You must not sit safe in your home
and say: "How sad it is, poor them!"
You must not endure so terribly well
the unfairness that upon you never fell!
I cry with the last breath of my voice:
You must not allow yourself to forget!
Forgive them not; they know what they do!
They breathe on evil and hatred's embers!
They like to kill, laments delight them,
they wish to see our world aflame!
They wish to drown us all in blood!
Do you not believe? You know it so!
You know that children are soldiers,
streaming with song across markets and streets
and enthused by their mothers' pious sacrifice
want to guard their country and march to war!
You know the vile people-deception
with hero's courage and with faith and honour-
you know that a hero, the child wants to me.
You know he will wave a flag and a sable!
And then he shall walk into a hail of steel
and be left hanging on some barbed wire
and rot for Hitler's Arayn race!
You know this is humanity's purpose and goal!
I did not understand. It's too late now.
My punishment is fair. My punishment is earned.
I believed in progress, I believed in peace
in work, in solidarity, in love!
But those who wish not to die in herd
can try it alone, on the executioner's block!
I call in the darkness, "Oh, may you hear!
There is only one thing to do:
Defend yourself while your hands are free!
Save your children! Europe's burning!"
I shook with cold. I put on some clothes.
Outside was sparkling stars' weather.
Only a smouldering line in the east
foretold the same as the voice of the dream:
The day behind the Earth's edge
rose with a shine of blood and fire,
rose with a terror so out of breath,
that it seemed the stars themselves were frozen!
I thought: Now there is something come about.
Our time is past - Europe's burning!
by Arnulf Øverland, published 1935 (translated as best she could by Camilla Sandman)
I awoke one night from a curious dream,
a voice was to me speaking,
distant as an underground stream-
and I rose: What is it you want of me?
"You must not sleep! You must not sleep!
You must not think that you've only dreamed!
"Yesterday I was convicted
Tonight the gallows rose in the courtyard.
They will come for me at five tomorrow!
The whole basement here is full
And all garrisons have basements upon basements.
We lie and wait in stonecold cells,
we lie and rot in darkened wholes!
We do not know, what we lie and wait for,
and who might be the next they get.
We moan, we scream - but can you hear?
Can you absoloutely nothing do?
No one may see us.
No one may know, what is comig for us.
Even more:
No one can believe what here daily occurs!
You think, it cannot be true,
this evil humans cannot be.
There must be among them those decent?
Brother, you have still much to learn!
They said: You shall give your life, if so needed.
And now we've given - in vain, in vain!
The world has forgotten! We're decieved!
You must not sleep again tonight!
You must not go to your merchant's place
and think of what gives losses and gains!
You must not blame acers and cattle
and say that's work enough for you!
You must not sit safe in your home
and say: "How sad it is, poor them!"
You must not endure so terribly well
the unfairness that upon you never fell!
I cry with the last breath of my voice:
You must not allow yourself to forget!
Forgive them not; they know what they do!
They breathe on evil and hatred's embers!
They like to kill, laments delight them,
they wish to see our world aflame!
They wish to drown us all in blood!
Do you not believe? You know it so!
You know that children are soldiers,
streaming with song across markets and streets
and enthused by their mothers' pious sacrifice
want to guard their country and march to war!
You know the vile people-deception
with hero's courage and with faith and honour-
you know that a hero, the child wants to me.
You know he will wave a flag and a sable!
And then he shall walk into a hail of steel
and be left hanging on some barbed wire
and rot for Hitler's Arayn race!
You know this is humanity's purpose and goal!
I did not understand. It's too late now.
My punishment is fair. My punishment is earned.
I believed in progress, I believed in peace
in work, in solidarity, in love!
But those who wish not to die in herd
can try it alone, on the executioner's block!
I call in the darkness, "Oh, may you hear!
There is only one thing to do:
Defend yourself while your hands are free!
Save your children! Europe's burning!"
I shook with cold. I put on some clothes.
Outside was sparkling stars' weather.
Only a smouldering line in the east
foretold the same as the voice of the dream:
The day behind the Earth's edge
rose with a shine of blood and fire,
rose with a terror so out of breath,
that it seemed the stars themselves were frozen!
I thought: Now there is something come about.
Our time is past - Europe's burning!