What Has Happened? Poem by Bertolt Brecht
What Has Happened?
The industrialist is having his aeroplane serviced.
The priest is wondering what he said in his sermon eight weeks ago
about tithes.
The generals are putting on civvies and looking like bank clerks.
Public officials are getting friendly.
The policeman points out the way to the man in the cloth cap.
The landlord comes to see whether the water supply is working.
The journalists write the word People with capital letters.
The singers sing at the opera for nothing.
Ships' captains check the food in the crew's galley,
Car owners get in beside their chauffeurs.
Doctors sue the insurance companies.
Scholars show their discoveries and hide their decorations.
Farmers deliver potatoes to the barracks.
The revolution has won its first battle:
That's what has happened.
What has happened? The workers have realised they are being exploited They have read their Karl Marx and decided he is right. A revolution has been staged in their name. The Tsar and his cronies have been overthrown. Citizens are calling one another ‘comrade’, Treating one another with dignity and respect As described by Brecht in this poem. .All is set –why don’t the workers now govern? First Lenin, then Stalin procrastinated Saying the workers were not ready to assume power. They must first be educated. In the meantime There will be a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat, ’ Meaning first Lenin, then Stalin will rule. All power corrupts. Stalin has joined the thousands he killed. The workers are still unready. The dictatorship continues.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/26/2024 11:22:33 AM # 1.0.0.1119
...The generals are putting on civvies and looking like bank clerks... What a wonderful poem!