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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Bertolt Brecht: Selections on war
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Bertolt Brecht
From Mother Courage and Her Children (1939)
Translated by Eric Bentley
MOTHER Courage: …What is it, were you attacked? On the way back? I bet it was that soldier who got drunk on my liquor. I should never have let you go…They’re worse than animals.
CHAPLAIN: I reproach them with nothing. At home they never did these shameful things. The men who start the wars are responsible, they bring out the worst in people.
***
MOTHER COURAGE: I won’t let you spoil my war for me. Destroys the weak, does it? Well, what does peace do for ‘em, huh? War feeds its people better.
She sings:
If war doesn’t suit your disposition
When victory comes, you will be dead.
War is a business proposition:
But not with cheese, with steel instead!
***
Followed by two soldiers with halberds, EILIF enters. His hands are fettered. He is white as chalk.
CHAPLAIN: What happened to you?
EILIF: Where’s mother?
CHAPLAIN: Gone to town.
EILIF: They said she was here. I was allowed a last visit.
COOK (to the SOLDIERS): Where are you taking him?
A SOLDIER: For a ride.
The other soldier makes the gesture of throat cutting.
CHAPLAIN: What has he done?
SOLDIER: He broke in on a peasant. His wife is dead.
CHAPLAIN: Eilif, how could you?
EILIF: It’s no different. It’s what I did before.
COOK: That was in war time.
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