Man Poem by Eberhard Arnold

Man – heart, body, soul, and spirit –
steel yourself, put on your armor:
mighty battles stand ahead.
Give yourself with every fiber,
lift your eyes to the horizon,
keep your ear tuned to the heavens.

Don’t you see the breakers rising?
Don’t you hear the death knell sounding
in the last hard fight for light?
This dance of death on dark’ning waves,
this bloody struggle to be saved,
is this world judgment’s final hour?

Wait – the first faint beams are brightening,
tears on moistened cheeks are glistening.
Lovelessness is never the end.
Forget survival: find your brother.
Help each other take the rudder.
Praise the victory of light.

Steer out to sea, through death, to life!
Swim outward with the ebbing tide.
Stretch every limb, strain every nerve.
Man – heart, body, soul, and breath –
peace-fighter, sufferer of death –
give all for life: give your whole self!


Stuttgart, February 1924