French and German memorial poems

[iain mchenry]

Hi all,

Help! Does any one know of any German or French poems written to remember fallen comrades from the First War? We would like to use them in a forthcoming ceremony to be held at Doiran military cemetary on 12th September.

Regards

Iain

[paul guthrie]

The closest I can come is German song I have heard played at ceremonies, I Had A Comrade, seems modern Greman soldiers would know it, I know you are serving with some.

[iain mchenry]

Paul,

You wouldn't happen to know "I had a comrade" in english would you? I have asked some of my german collegues around here but none of them know it

Iain

[Chris_Baker]

Ich hatt' einen Kameraden,

Einen bessern findst du nit.

Die Trommel schlug zum Streite,

Er ging an meiner Seite

Im gleichen Schritt und Tritt.

Eine Kugel kam geflogen

Gilt's mir oder gilt es dir?

Ihn hat es weggerissen,

Er liegt mir vor den Füßen

Als wär's ein Stück von mir.

Will mir die Hand noch reichen,

Derweil ich eben lad.

Kann dir die Hand nicht geben,

Bleib du im ew'gen Leben

Mein guter Kamerad!

I had one faithful comrade

'Ere we heard the trumpet's call,

And we pledged our hearts forever

In battle joined together

To beat the foe or fall.

A bullet came screaming (or flying)

To seal his fate or mine

Right at my feet he stumbled,

And friendship's shrine it crumbled

Around that friend of mine.

His hand is blindly seeking

The clasp I cannot give

For duty calls me onward

Farewell my dying comrade,

Our love shall ever live.

Good job I've been working in Germany...

The English version is not a direct translation, by the way.

[michaeldr]

Iain,

How about "The Last Relief" by Roland Dorgeles

translation by Lyn Macdonald

"Relieved at last! Right, lads, we're going back!

Let's see - club, water-bottle - nothing that I've left?

Here I spent winter, filthy and bereft.

Good riddance to my filthy dugout shack.

God! Through sleepless nights, how cold we were!

Floundering in trenches inches deep in slush,

With barriers of chopped-off trees and brush,

We trampled on the stiffs, asleep for evermore.

Never again that gunfire like a knife

That drives you mad from midnight through to dawn

Guessing the range - Too short - This one too long!

The crouching's finished. Welcome back to life!

I'm happy tonight. I ought to laugh with glee,

Hardly remembering my dugout. Au revoir!

But the night has never seemed so bleak before,

Nor my heart so heavy - and so melancholy.

We're going. They'll stay - but with relentless tread,

Heavy with memory the past will dog me still,

Sadness I won't forget. Neither that ruined mill

Nor the recollection of the shroudless dead."

Best of luck with the project

Michael D.R.

[Sue Light]

Iain

I’ve got quite a bit of poetry, both French and German, but much of it is very intense. Of course, the problem with poetry in translation, is that either you translate faithfully, and lose the rhyme and rhythm, or you make it sound pretty, in which case some of the meaning is lost. Here’s a French one by Jean-Marc Bernard: [with apologies for the mistakes with accents]:

De Profundis

Du plus profound de la tranchée

Nous élevons les mains vers vous,

Seigneur! Ayez pitié de nous

Et de notre âme desséchée!

Car plus encore que notre chair,

Notre âme est lasse et sans courage.

Sur nous s’est abattu l’orage

Des eaux, de la flame et du fer.

Vous nous voyez couverts de boue,

Déchirés, hâves et rendus…

Mais nos coeurs, les avez-vous vus?

Et faut-il, mon Dieu, qu’on l’avoue?

Nous sommes si privés d’espoir,

La paix est toujours si lointaine,

Que parfois nous savons à peine

Où se trouve notre devoir.

Eclairez-nous dans ce marasme,

Réconfortez-nous, et chassez

L’angoisse des coeurs harassés;

Ah! rendez-nous l’enthousiasme!

Mais aux Morts, qui tous ont été

Couchés dans la glaise ou le sable,

Donnez le repos ineffable

Seigneur! ils l’ont bien mérité.

De Profundis

The trenches, Lord, are stark and deep,

We raise our hands towards you.

The steps out of the dark are dark and steep,

Have mercy on our souls!

Exhaustion of the spirit is worse

Than of the body. On our heads

A hurricane of death and pain has burst,

Flame, iron rain and flood.

You see us ragged, caked with mud,

Haggard, disheartened, weary.

But have you seen our naked souls, O God?

Shall we confess the worst?

Peace is intangible as a prayer

And every day more distant.

This quagmire where we crouch is named Despair;

Faint is the lamp of duty.

Give us some heart, some light, console

Us in this mire, this pit of Hell,

And heal the soldier’s agony of soul.

Restore our resolution.

But those who suffered in the trenches’ mud

And in this mud lie buried,

Clothed in their sacramental blood –

Grant them the peace they merit.

Regards - Sue

[paul guthrie]

Iain, glad Chris knew, I could not do it in either language. Somehow, I really think this should be sung in German, it was their song and it just would not have the same feel at all. Of course except for possibly a few advisers there were no Germans on the Salonika Front.

Anybody up to supplying our pal one in Bulgarian?

[Sue Light]

Paul - well, you did ask - This by Bulgarian poet Dimcho Debelyanov [1887-1916], translation by Ewald Osers:

A Hero's Dream

The enemy's retreated and the noise

and smoke of battle's drifted over the hill.

Sleep and relief descend on weary eyes

and now once more the battlefield lies still.

And he, too, shuts his eyes and falls asleep,

his rifle butt supporting head and limb,

and thinks he hears his mother in the deep

enfolding silence whispering to me.

- Fear not the foe, my son, fear not his challenge,

even though in battle you may soon be killed:

your native land expects you to avenge

five hundred years of blood guiltlessly spilled.

If you're to die, die like a man, my son:

if you return, then know that the whole nation

will honour you for all that you have done,

staking your young life without hesitation.

Then she fell silent. He reached out and tried

to embrace her - then he saw, as he was waking,

the morning star still hanging in the skey

as on the horizon the new day was breaking.

The trumpets sounded the alarm. And while

fighting the battle with disdain of death

he fell, on his young lips a quiet smile:

a gallant hero to his final breath.

Sue

[paul guthrie]

Well Sue I did ask, and I was being cute! No one, self included, should ever underestimate the knowledge of the pals, kudos to you!

[AOK4]

Iain, glad Chris knew, I could not do it in either language. Somehow, I really think this should be sung in German, it was their song and it just would not have the same feel at all. Of course except for possibly a few advisers there were no Germans on the Salonika Front.

Anybody up to supplying our pal one in Bulgarian?

There were quite a lot of German units serving on the Saloniki front. They were mostly spread out in the Bulgarian units to reinforce the front.

Jan

[paul guthrie]

Thanks Jan. I have read the only book I have on this campaign three times but it's been a while and I did not remember this. I do remember Hindenburg saying when they - Bulgarians - were collapsing with maybe 1% of their territory occupied he could not send reinforcements.

Is there a German Cemetery there? I think I'll be there next July on Salonika Campaign Society trip.

[iain mchenry]

Hi Folks,

Chuffed to bits with the replies I've had here. The only reason I've asked for their translations (Does not have to be exact) is due to the fact that we have on average 25-35 (international) soldiers per battlefield tour down here and one of the main things about being here (In Kosovo) is everyone should speak and understand English as it is the main NATO language. I understand that the poems spoken in their mother toungue would probably give more input to the scene, but our worry is that the other nations (excluding those that fought there) would not understand them. I am sure that Major Ben Roberts who leads the next tour will be chuffed to bits with the poems offerred.

Many, many thanks

Iain

P.S. I have (hopefully! ) persuaded him to join the Pals!

[egbert]

Uh Oh Chris, you should visit Germany more often!

Try this Link for "Ich hatt' einen Kameraden" in English

Also, if you like, click on "715KB MP3" on that link and you hear the choir!

or surf in "Folksongs" and "Deutsche Volkslieder" ; you will find a huge repertoire of even WWI songs in German and in English language as well.

[Chris_Baker]

The translation isn't mine. I asked one of my pals over there to show me a copy of the lyrics and that's what he found. The third line ...trommel, etc (=drum)... is where it starts to go wrong really. But I suppose the sentiment is the same and it would just about fit the music!

[michaeldr]

Just for the record I think that I should have added that Lyn Macdonald supplies the following biographical note with the translation quoted above

"DORGELES, Roland L., Heavy Infantry and Air Service (French army), died 1973, aged 87"

poem and note are taken from 'Anthem for Doomed Youth - Poets of the Great War' copyright Lyn Macdonald and The Folio Society 2000

[What happened to the forum's "edit" feature? The answer seems to be that it only clicks in when you log-on. Still learning.]

Regards

Michael D.R.

Edited 7 August , 2003 by michaeldr

[Dragon]

If you can obtain The Lost Voices of World War One, by Tim Cross, pub Bloomsbury, you will find a wide selection of literature (poetry, prose, drama) from a broad international selection of writers including French and German, Belgian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Armenian and Serbian as well as British. Both the originals and the English translations are given, with accompanying commentaries and helpful notes.

Gwyn

ISBN 0-7475-0276-5