Wer baute das siebentorige Theben?
In den Büchern stehen die Namen von Königen.
Haben die Könige die Felsbrocken herbeigeschleppt?
Und das mehrmals zerstörte Babylon,
Wer baute es so viele Male auf ? In welchen Häusern
Des goldstrahlenden Lima wohnten die Bauleute?
Wohin gingen an dem Abend, wo die chinesische Mauer fertig war,
Die Maurer? Das große Rom
Ist voll von Triumphbögen. Über wen
Triumphierten die Cäsaren? Hatte das vielbesungene Byzanz
Nur Paläste für seine Bewohner? Selbst in dem sagenhaften Atlantis
Brüllten doch in der Nacht, wo das Meer es verschlang,
Die Ersaufenden nach ihren Sklaven.
Der junge Alexander eroberte Indien.
Er allein?
Cäsar schlug die Gallier.
Hatte er nicht wenigstens einen Koch bei sich?
Philipp von Spanien weinte, als seine Flotte
Untergegangen war. Weinte sonst niemand?
Friedrich der Zweite siegte im Siebenjährigen Krieg. Wer
Siegte außer ihm?
Jede Seite ein Sieg.
Wer kochte den Siegesschmaus?
Alle zehn Jahre ein großer Mann.
Wer bezahlte die Spesen?
So viele Berichte,
So viele Fragen.
Bertold Brecht (1898-1956)
Pictured: Delvaux, photo by Jeanne Madic © 2014, 7X10 titled, signed and dated digital C-type print (tirage numérique 18cm X 27cm sur papier argentique, nommé, signé et daté au dos ). The C-types are printed on Fujicolor Crystal Archive Paper that is estimated to retain its colour and tone for 60 years.
To buy the artwork: http://store.vanishingtwins.co.uk/135-delvaux.html
Questions from A Worker Who Reads
Who built Thebes of the seven gates?
In the books you will find the name of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?
And Babylon, many times demolished.
Who raised it up so many times?
In what houses
Of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live?
Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finished
Did the masons go? Great Rome
Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song,
Only palaces for its inhabitants? Even in fabled Atlantis
The night the ocean engulfed it
The drowning still bawled for their slaves.
The young Alexander conquered India.
Was he alone?
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Did he not have even a cook with him?
Philip of Spain wept when his armada
Went down. Was he the only one to weep?
Frederick the Second won the Seven Years’ War. Who
Else won it?
Every page a victory.
Who cooked the feast for the victors?
Every ten years a great man.
Who paid the bill?
So many reports.
So many questions.
Bertold Brecht (1898-1956)
“Fragen eines lesenden Arbeiters” is translated by M. Hamburger from Bertolt Brecht, Poems 1913-1956, Methuen, N.Y., London, 1976
Pictured: Delvaux, photo by Jeanne Madic © 2014, 7X10 titled, signed and dated digital C-type print (tirage numérique 18cm X 27cm sur papier argentique, nommé, signé et daté au dos ). The C-types are printed on Fujicolor Crystal Archive Paper that is estimated to retain its colour and tone for 60 years.
To buy the artwork: http://store.vanishingtwins.co.uk/135-delvaux.html