MEIN BRUDER WAR EIN FLIEGER Mein Bruder war ein Flieger Eines Tags bekam er eine Kart Er hat seine Kiste eingepackt Und südwärts ging die Fahrt. Mein Bruder ist ein Eroberer Unsern Volke fehlt's an Raum Und Grund und Boden zu kriegen, ist Bei uns ein alter Traum. Der Raum, den mein Bruder eroberte Liegt in Guadarramassiv Er ist lang einen Meter achtzig Und einen Meter fünfzig tief. Bertolt Brecht, 1938.
MY BROTHER WAS AN AVIATOR My brother was an aviator One day he came with a map And baggage he had done And he headed South. My brother is a conqueror Our people needs space Ground and soil for fight It has been always our ancient obsession The space that my brother conquested Is in Guadarrama's mountains It is one-metre-eighty long And one-metre-fifty deep. I know my English transaltion is not perfect because two reasons: One, my English is not good and two, I did not translate literally, but its meaning.
Martin. Have you got any info on Bertolt Brecht? What was he? Did he participate in the war? I just knew he was a German writer who did not like the regime very much...
Berthold Brecht 1898-1956 Left-wing writer and playwright. Served in the German army in WWI 1917/18. In 1928, co-operated with Kurt Weill to write the 'Beggar's Opera' for which he is best known today. This was first performed in Berlin. In 1933, one day after the Reichstag fire, Brecht was exiled from Germany, moving to Switzerland, France and then Denmark. In 1940, when Denmark was invaded, he moved to Finland and then (in 1941 ) arrived in the USA where he worked until 1949, when he returned to East Berlin via Switzerland. He died from a heart-attack in 1956.
Thanks Martin. I knew he was a "red". I took this poem from a book my Literature teacher had about "Civil War Poetry", nearly all the poems support the republican cause. I will try to buy that book. It has a lot of poetry in original languages and their respective translations to Spanish.