The Thousandth Regiment 15. Verse
Poems of suffering and peace from a nearly forgotten master. Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele was killed in action in July, 1915, 26 years of age. His partner and friends brought out his Das tausendste Regiment ("The Thousandth Regiment") posthumously in 1917. Whether or not his work has been ignored because he was Gay, it's time to bring his name forward and place it with the other great WW1 poets, where he has always belonged.
For the translations, I have abandoned rhyme in favor of unflinching accuracy, but have stuck to Ehrenbaum-Degele's metre as closely as I can. He lived these words, I am just trying to bring them to an English-speaking audience once and for all.
- Signature Author
- 07/31/2019 (Updated: 10/22/2019)
- 38 Chapters
- 8,732 Words
- 44,347 Views
- 293 Comments
- Mature
- Complete
Story Recommendations (3 members)
- Action Packed 0
- Addictive/Pacing 1
- Characters 1
- Chills 0
- Cliffhanger 0
- Compelling 0
- Feel-Good 0
- Humor 0
- Smoldering 0
- Tearjerker 3
- Unique 2
- World Building 0
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1.
"Once we were factory workers or farmers"
- 252 Words
- 1,752 Views
- 21 Comments
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2.
"Gunned-down fathers, bastards and grandsons, we"
- 224 Words
- 1,544 Views
- 14 Comments
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3.
"Abruptly raised over the sun and sand"
- 224 Words
- 1,414 Views
- 8 Comments
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4.
"Our helmets’ glistening peaks flicker over"
- 201 Words
- 1,189 Views
- 8 Comments
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5.
"We carry the firmament's heavy white heat"
- 226 Words
- 1,580 Views
- 10 Comments
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6.
"Wind like the old days surrounds us in velvet"
- 238 Words
- 1,466 Views
- 8 Comments
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7.
"On the lime-washed partitions of our latrine"
- 215 Words
- 1,186 Views
- 6 Comments
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8.
"Suddenly the woods are shorn by a ravine"
- 218 Words
- 952 Views
- 10 Comments
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9.
"We have rifles set and lifted in our hands"
- 231 Words
- 1,257 Views
- 12 Comments
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10.
"Your straggly seats, do blaze like leopard spots"
- 360 Words
- 557 Views
- 4 Comments
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11.
"O warm-spice mercy in a moving dress!"
- 217 Words
- 703 Views
- 6 Comments
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12.
"The world's adrift some placid evening waves"
- 218 Words
- 527 Views
- 6 Comments
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13.
"And here, two thousand years past Golgotha"
- 219 Words
- 1,402 Views
- 13 Comments
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14.
"Night moves above, in the zone of respite"
- 218 Words
- 638 Views
- 6 Comments
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15.
"The dark of night lifts, finally overwrought"
- 235 Words
- 796 Views
- 5 Comments
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16.
"From distant fires, luminous as rubies"
- 226 Words
- 1,320 Views
- 6 Comments
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17.
"Under several overturned crooks of bridges"
- 212 Words
- 1,569 Views
- 10 Comments
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18.
"Noyon. Puffing halts! The locomotives whistle"
- 247 Words
- 1,317 Views
- 7 Comments
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19.
"We, beneath iron spray from the batteries"
- 256 Words
- 1,205 Views
- 6 Comments
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20.
"I've sacrificed me to many fair women"
- 213 Words
- 1,332 Views
- 7 Comments
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21.
"We in the shadow of death, on dire watch"
- 216 Words
- 1,160 Views
- 6 Comments
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22.
"A graying army we, lodged in the trenches"
- 217 Words
- 1,058 Views
- 6 Comments
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23.
"Finally have the woods pendulously sunk"
- 223 Words
- 1,562 Views
- 11 Comments
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24.
"A shot-to-hell forest. A house like bone"
- 223 Words
- 480 Views
- 4 Comments
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25.
"Born amid the era of the aeroplane"
- 212 Words
- 1,220 Views
- 7 Comments
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26.
"Out front, a fire lashed like a wild mane in flight"
- 224 Words
- 1,064 Views
- 6 Comments
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27.
"Like splendid scarlet flowers arranged for show"
- 219 Words
- 790 Views
- 8 Comments
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28.
"The sharp pings muffle from the springing shrapnel"
- 231 Words
- 1,223 Views
- 8 Comments
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29.
"Once upon a war, a new fairytale says"
- 228 Words
- 794 Views
- 4 Comments
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30.
"Hungering and without sleep for three long days"
- 234 Words
- 1,375 Views
- 8 Comments
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31.
"Here no Christmas trees twinkle lit for us"
- 226 Words
- 1,148 Views
- 6 Comments
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32.
"You crimson butterfly, how you've kissed me"
- 238 Words
- 1,318 Views
- 10 Comments
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33.
"Death carves its inflamed characters deep in us"
- 239 Words
- 640 Views
- 6 Comments
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34.
"It's now our eyes glaze over like bright water"
- 236 Words
- 1,171 Views
- 9 Comments
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35.
"While leaning against the hospital railing"
- 227 Words
- 644 Views
- 7 Comments
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36.
"I still envision flares rising steeply"
- 235 Words
- 652 Views
- 3 Comments
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37.
"The wheels turn, the factory's iron-echo"
- 220 Words
- 452 Views
- 3 Comments
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38.
"The one blazed before my eyes like a flame"
- 234 Words
- 541 Views
- 5 Comments
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