It's a Queer Time
It's hard to know if you're alive or dead
When steel and fire go roaring through your head.
One moment you'll be crouching at your gun
Traversing, mowing heaps down half in fun:
The next, you choke and clutch at your right breast
No time to think -leave all- and off you go...
To Treasure Island where the Spice winds blow,
To lovely groves of mango, quince and lime
Breathe no good-bye, but ho, for the Red West!
It's a queer time.
You're charging madly at them yelling "Fag!"
When somehow something gives and your feet drag.
You fall and strike your head; yet feel no pain
And find ... you're digging tunnels through the hay
In the Big Barn, 'cause it's a rainy day.
Oh, springy hay, and lovely beams to climb!
You're back in the old sailor suit again.
It's a queer time.
Or you'll be dozing safe in your dug-out
A great roar -the trench shakes and falls about
You're struggling, gasping, struggling, then ... hullo!
Elsie comes tripping gaily down the trench,
Hanky to nose -that lyddite makes a stench-
Getting her pinafore all over grime.
Funny! because she died ten years ago!
It's a queer time.
The trouble is, things happen much too quick;
Up jump the Boches, rifles thump and click,
You stagger, and the whole scene fades away:
Even good Christians don't like passing straight
From Tipperary or their Hymn of Hate
To Alleluiah-chanting, and the chime
Of golden harps ... and ... I'm not well to-day...
It's a queer time.
Een gedicht van Robert Graves, één van de War Poets die als soldaat de Eerste Wereldoorlog in de loopgraven heeft meegemaakt. Hij heeft hier, behalve veel gedichten ook het indrukwekkende boek 'Goodbye to All That' over geschreven. (ook in Nederlandse vertaling verschenen onder de titel 'Dat hebben we gehad')
drie laatjes, reeds:
Rob - 24 Maart '03 - 22:55
Ik vroeg me opeens af: naast humanisme en olie zal inspiratie voor dichters toch niet nog een reden zijn voor dit krijgsgeweld,.... nee dat verbeeld ik me maar.Rob - 27 Maart '03 - 22:39
Mooi boek, moet er een verslag van makenRianne Mossel () - 31 Maart '03 - 19:32