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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Alfred Döblin: The old grim cry for war
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Alfred Döblin
From Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929)
Translated by Eugene Jolas
“You had to join up with the Prussians, you’ve been in the war. Now I call that theft of liberty. But they had their own courts and police, and because they had them, they put a muzzle on you, and so now it’s not a theft of liberty, according to a poor bum like you, but military service. And you’ve got to put up with it, like taxes, which go for something you don’t understand any better.”
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Trumpets are blaring a military song beside him. A battle was fought on the open wold, ratatata, ratatata, ratatata. We have sacked the town and taken all their heavy gold. Sacked it – racked it, ratatata!
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