The Thousandth Regiment - 38. "The one blazed before my eyes like a flame"

The last poem is as profound as the first. This has been an interesting experience for me. I didn't always "get" the poem at the first reading. And not ever having been a soldier may be part off that. I would first like to thank Lyssa for bringing these poems to your attention. I would especially like to thank her for her comments. I always read them, and I think they helped me better understand each poem. I am amazed that you decided to translate these poems! And I applaud your efforts! Sometimes my tablet decided to translate the poem written in German to English. It was interesting to see that the basic words were the same, or at least similar. Your translation was much more lyrical. I imagine it was your poetry experience that made the difference. You should be extremely proud of a job well done! Thank you for sharing this with the reat of us.

And I apologize for being long winded, but Ihad a lot I wanted to say.

It is so heartbreaking sad, to read Hans longing for peace, knowing, he lived only few more weeks after finishing his work on the sonnets.

This collection was a very challenging and outstanding masterpiece of translation done by you. Challenging as well for the readers and I have to admit, that looking so intensely on the sonnets and literature surrounding it, was a deep emotional experience at many times. Yet, I am glad you worked so passionate and dedicated. Thank you very much for your hard work.

I am filled with images of communion celebrated over a soiled and windblown altar, of visions of a transfiguration unimaginable to those untouched by battle, and of the bodies and blood of so many given for what now seems like so little. The first three lines of the sestet speak with foreboding, even as Hans speaks of going home in the next three. Only the icon, the vision that sustains him still, will embrace him as he marches toward the unspeakable, final undoing.

You have done magnificent work with these translations. They deserve to be read and studied by everyone, especially those who think to send young soldiers into harm's way. We are all deeply in your debt.

Again the deutschen Farben come into play in this poem. His double wordplay, which he seems to relish as a way to speak to the initiated, is used here brilliantly in a single word: verklären. On casual reading, not knowing about poem No.18 for example, this word can pass quickly by as "glorify." But the second usage of the term is the one consistent with all the other Regiment poems. He envisions the old imperial flag "transfigured" to the deutschen Farben of the democratic Germany he foresaw would be the outcome of the war. This is what he was fighting for, perhaps this is the reason he went into the army in the first place.

Lyssa and I have used the word subversive about Hans, and here, in the poem he himself selected to end the series, he can be both political and extremely personal. He's not just one of the many war dead, he's like a brother lost to us across time. This feeling of closeness to him might be Hans' greatest, most subversive achievement. By holding our heartstrings, he asks how could any of us put ours sons through such a war? 

Thanks to all who have read and supported my efforts with The Thousandth Regiment.  

There are few words i can write about this. i read and emotion steals them all. Except for very few each of these have wrung me out.

AC you have given a fellow poet another chance to be heard, you have given us another voice to hear. Though the words and visions are not easy. Hans' words, his thoughts, hopes and dreams should be on our lips. Thank you. I know what it cost me to read them, i can only imagine what it may have cost you. xo