When plastered billboards scream with slogans
'fight for your country, go to battle'
When media's print assaults your senses,
'Support our leaders' shrieks and rattles…
And fools who don't know any better
Believe the old, eternal lie
That we must march and shoot and kill
Murder, and burn, and bomb, and grill…
When press begins the battle-cry
That nation needs to unify
And for your country you must die…
Dear brainwashed friend, my neighbor dear
Brother from this, or other nation
Know that the cries of anger, fear,
Are nothing but manipulation
by fat-cats, kings who covet riches,
And feed off your sweat and blood - the leeches!
When call to arms engulfs the land
It means that somewhere oil was found,
Shooting 'blackgold' from underground!
It means they found a sneaky way
To make more money, grab more gold
But this is not what you are told!
Don't spill your blood for bucks or oil
Break, burn your rifle, shout: 'NO DEAL!'
Let the rich scoundrels, kings, and bankers
Send their own children to get killed!
May your loud voice be amplified
By roar of other common men
The battle-weary of all nations:
WE WON'T BE CONNED TO WAR AGAIN!
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Comments
1 - 8 of 8
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when the original poem was written
From guest Jurgi (contact)
Do not know exactly, but the poem is more than 70 years old (but rather not more that 75). -
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To guest Jurgi
As I said in my previous comment the age of the poem is at the top of this page!
As it clearly says 1929 that (at the time of writing this response) makes it 80 years old!
Jim
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when
From guest sylv (contact)
I'd appreciate it if you can tell me when the original poem was written thank you -
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To Guest Sylv (and others)
We always try and state the year the poem was written (or more commonly when it was first published) and it is to be found - as is the case here - at the top right with the poets name and dates!!
Jim
Oldpoetry Team Member
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From guest Andrzej Zukowski (contact)
This translation is an interesting abbreviation of the original and it is a pity some of the richness have been left out. Nevertheless it is a good, convincing attempt. In the verse "Break, burn your rifle", would use: "Break, SMASH your rifle". I wonder who is the author of the translation and would be very keen to exchange some ideas. Kind regards - Andrzej W. Zukowski -
From guest chester (contact)
This translation is really great, but it lacks some very important lines from original poem. Like the one with "bishop, pastor, rabbi, coming to bless your machine gun, because they were told by the God himself, that one's duty is to fight for his country"... -
Apologies
From guest kris (contact)
I am so very sorry if I offended you in any way. That was definitely not my intension. I love this poem by Tuwim and only wanted to share some remarks with you. Keep up your good work and let me stress again that I do respect what you do. And if I ever come across or create a more accurate translation you will be the first ones to read it. Take care ! -
Not-so-accurate translation
From guest Kris (contact)
I am Polish and glad to be quite fluent in English. With all the due respect to the author of the above translation I must say that it is substantially different from the original Polish text. As a matter of fact it is a totally new piece of poetry and only loosely resembling the original one. First of all the name of the original poem should've been translated as "To the Common Man". Nevertheless, I respect the attempt. -
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for guest KRIS
If you could supply a more accurate translation for this poem then please do. We, as volunteers on Oldpoetry attempt to do our best but for the many languages not spoken by our team members we are more or less reliant on native tongue people like yourself or translations made by other people stating that is as true a translation as possible.
Any accurate assistance is always welcomed on Oldpoetry as we do attempt to provide the correct information possible. At time we have no knowledge that any translation is correct or not and we are in some ways reliant on people to point us in the correct direction as we hope you can. Thank You for bringing this to our attention and we look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Von ~ Oldpoetry Team
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From guest danny (contact)
sorry ,perhaps someone could explain, how is a poem translated from polish able to rhyme in english?
GUEST CONTACTED -
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To guest Danny and others
There are a number of ways to translate a poem.
A line by line literal translation as is done by the computerised babelfish method.
A line by line literal translation adjusted for grammatical differences
An overall translation that attempts as far as possible to stick to the poets thoughts using the best phrases from the new language where a choice exists and, if the poet was noted for rhyme and rhythm, trying to choose phrases that carry that over into the new language.
The latter is by far the most common method and it relies on a sympathetic writer which is why you will often find the whole of a poets output is sometimes translated by the same person so as to give a common style to that work in the new language.
As you can see from some of my earlier comments on this poem we would appreciate an accurate Polish text and clarification if needed of any errors people see in the translation given. A translation which could possibly be the poets own work since he lived in English speaking areas for a length of time!
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Julian Tuwim certainly was a voice of his time...as amplified with strong conviction in his verse..."The Common Man" Truism with great impact...an honourable read.
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It's a bit different (mostly the meaning of few last lines), but still awsome translation.
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I would be glad to find out who was the translator onto the English or if Tuwim translated in on this own.
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Who translated that?
Author! Author!
Im waiting for you
I really like it!
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