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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Alfred Neumann: Selections on war
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Alfred Neumann
From Guerra (1930)
Translated by Huntley Paterson
“I hate war!” exclaimed the Grand Duke suddenly in a voice that sounded husky. “Old as I am, I have been able to manage without it up to the present. Are not any of you gentlemen going to second me in this? For I know that some of you are familiar enough with the idea of humanity…”
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Guerra had the extraordinary good fortune to be brought the news of Tentenna’s decision in favour of war, and of Piedmont’s order for general mobilization at ten in the evening, in the middle of the jubilations over the proclamation. The Leader was standing with his staff in the Loggia dei Lanzi, brilliantly lighted by torches – an ideal platform for a popular orator – and was looking down on the raving mob.
War! War! War! and repeated cries of “Death to the Austrians!”
Guerra was not happy. He felt strangely oppressed by the horror of the day. Were the Austrian dead who were being demanded, and the Italian dead who were being offered, to constitute the meaning and pinnacle of his life – the work of his life? Was it impossible to escape the horrible double entendre of his name, which was now constantly being roared from one end of the square to the other?
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“The most glorious day, my old friends, and we are all brothers, and we are going to kill all the rest! That is our simple way of creating a new paradise. Our most glorious day!…I am Minister of War, as is only tight and proper; for I understand a good deal about war and very little about peace, as I have proved…”
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