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
- 44,921 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
- 1,765 Views
- 21 Comments
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2.
"Gunned-down fathers, bastards and grandsons, we"
- 224 Words
- 1,557 Views
- 14 Comments
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3.
"Abruptly raised over the sun and sand"
- 224 Words
- 1,440 Views
- 8 Comments
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4.
"Our helmets’ glistening peaks flicker over"
- 201 Words
- 1,199 Views
- 8 Comments
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5.
"We carry the firmament's heavy white heat"
- 226 Words
- 1,612 Views
- 10 Comments
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6.
"Wind like the old days surrounds us in velvet"
- 238 Words
- 1,477 Views
- 8 Comments
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7.
"On the lime-washed partitions of our latrine"
- 215 Words
- 1,197 Views
- 6 Comments
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8.
"Suddenly the woods are shorn by a ravine"
- 218 Words
- 982 Views
- 10 Comments
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9.
"We have rifles set and lifted in our hands"
- 231 Words
- 1,270 Views
- 12 Comments
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10.
"Your straggly seats, do blaze like leopard spots"
- 360 Words
- 569 Views
- 4 Comments
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11.
"O warm-spice mercy in a moving dress!"
- 217 Words
- 710 Views
- 6 Comments
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12.
"The world's adrift some placid evening waves"
- 218 Words
- 536 Views
- 6 Comments
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13.
"And here, two thousand years past Golgotha"
- 219 Words
- 1,412 Views
- 13 Comments
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14.
"Night moves above, in the zone of respite"
- 218 Words
- 652 Views
- 6 Comments
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15.
"The dark of night lifts, finally overwrought"
- 235 Words
- 818 Views
- 5 Comments
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16.
"From distant fires, luminous as rubies"
- 226 Words
- 1,328 Views
- 6 Comments
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17.
"Under several overturned crooks of bridges"
- 212 Words
- 1,587 Views
- 10 Comments
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18.
"Noyon. Puffing halts! The locomotives whistle"
- 247 Words
- 1,326 Views
- 7 Comments
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19.
"We, beneath iron spray from the batteries"
- 256 Words
- 1,217 Views
- 6 Comments
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20.
"I've sacrificed me to many fair women"
- 213 Words
- 1,343 Views
- 7 Comments
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21.
"We in the shadow of death, on dire watch"
- 216 Words
- 1,193 Views
- 6 Comments
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22.
"A graying army we, lodged in the trenches"
- 217 Words
- 1,073 Views
- 6 Comments
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23.
"Finally have the woods pendulously sunk"
- 223 Words
- 1,580 Views
- 11 Comments
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24.
"A shot-to-hell forest. A house like bone"
- 223 Words
- 487 Views
- 4 Comments
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25.
"Born amid the era of the aeroplane"
- 212 Words
- 1,230 Views
- 7 Comments
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26.
"Out front, a fire lashed like a wild mane in flight"
- 224 Words
- 1,072 Views
- 6 Comments
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27.
"Like splendid scarlet flowers arranged for show"
- 219 Words
- 799 Views
- 8 Comments
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28.
"The sharp pings muffle from the springing shrapnel"
- 231 Words
- 1,231 Views
- 8 Comments
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29.
"Once upon a war, a new fairytale says"
- 228 Words
- 802 Views
- 4 Comments
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30.
"Hungering and without sleep for three long days"
- 234 Words
- 1,383 Views
- 8 Comments
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31.
"Here no Christmas trees twinkle lit for us"
- 226 Words
- 1,157 Views
- 6 Comments
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32.
"You crimson butterfly, how you've kissed me"
- 238 Words
- 1,330 Views
- 10 Comments
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33.
"Death carves its inflamed characters deep in us"
- 239 Words
- 648 Views
- 6 Comments
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34.
"It's now our eyes glaze over like bright water"
- 236 Words
- 1,195 Views
- 9 Comments
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35.
"While leaning against the hospital railing"
- 227 Words
- 654 Views
- 7 Comments
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36.
"I still envision flares rising steeply"
- 235 Words
- 658 Views
- 3 Comments
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37.
"The wheels turn, the factory's iron-echo"
- 220 Words
- 460 Views
- 3 Comments
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38.
"The one blazed before my eyes like a flame"
- 234 Words
- 553 Views
- 5 Comments
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