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
- 44,723 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
- 1,761 Views
- 21 Comments
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2.
"Gunned-down fathers, bastards and grandsons, we"
- 224 Words
- 1,552 Views
- 14 Comments
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3.
"Abruptly raised over the sun and sand"
- 224 Words
- 1,437 Views
- 8 Comments
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4.
"Our helmets’ glistening peaks flicker over"
- 201 Words
- 1,195 Views
- 8 Comments
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5.
"We carry the firmament's heavy white heat"
- 226 Words
- 1,603 Views
- 10 Comments
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6.
"Wind like the old days surrounds us in velvet"
- 238 Words
- 1,472 Views
- 8 Comments
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7.
"On the lime-washed partitions of our latrine"
- 215 Words
- 1,194 Views
- 6 Comments
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8.
"Suddenly the woods are shorn by a ravine"
- 218 Words
- 975 Views
- 10 Comments
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9.
"We have rifles set and lifted in our hands"
- 231 Words
- 1,266 Views
- 12 Comments
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10.
"Your straggly seats, do blaze like leopard spots"
- 360 Words
- 562 Views
- 4 Comments
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11.
"O warm-spice mercy in a moving dress!"
- 217 Words
- 708 Views
- 6 Comments
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12.
"The world's adrift some placid evening waves"
- 218 Words
- 533 Views
- 6 Comments
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13.
"And here, two thousand years past Golgotha"
- 219 Words
- 1,409 Views
- 13 Comments
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14.
"Night moves above, in the zone of respite"
- 218 Words
- 646 Views
- 6 Comments
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15.
"The dark of night lifts, finally overwrought"
- 235 Words
- 813 Views
- 5 Comments
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16.
"From distant fires, luminous as rubies"
- 226 Words
- 1,324 Views
- 6 Comments
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17.
"Under several overturned crooks of bridges"
- 212 Words
- 1,580 Views
- 10 Comments
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18.
"Noyon. Puffing halts! The locomotives whistle"
- 247 Words
- 1,323 Views
- 7 Comments
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19.
"We, beneath iron spray from the batteries"
- 256 Words
- 1,211 Views
- 6 Comments
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20.
"I've sacrificed me to many fair women"
- 213 Words
- 1,339 Views
- 7 Comments
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21.
"We in the shadow of death, on dire watch"
- 216 Words
- 1,180 Views
- 6 Comments
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22.
"A graying army we, lodged in the trenches"
- 217 Words
- 1,069 Views
- 6 Comments
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23.
"Finally have the woods pendulously sunk"
- 223 Words
- 1,575 Views
- 11 Comments
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24.
"A shot-to-hell forest. A house like bone"
- 223 Words
- 485 Views
- 4 Comments
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25.
"Born amid the era of the aeroplane"
- 212 Words
- 1,227 Views
- 7 Comments
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26.
"Out front, a fire lashed like a wild mane in flight"
- 224 Words
- 1,068 Views
- 6 Comments
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27.
"Like splendid scarlet flowers arranged for show"
- 219 Words
- 795 Views
- 8 Comments
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28.
"The sharp pings muffle from the springing shrapnel"
- 231 Words
- 1,227 Views
- 8 Comments
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29.
"Once upon a war, a new fairytale says"
- 228 Words
- 798 Views
- 4 Comments
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30.
"Hungering and without sleep for three long days"
- 234 Words
- 1,380 Views
- 8 Comments
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31.
"Here no Christmas trees twinkle lit for us"
- 226 Words
- 1,154 Views
- 6 Comments
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32.
"You crimson butterfly, how you've kissed me"
- 238 Words
- 1,325 Views
- 10 Comments
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33.
"Death carves its inflamed characters deep in us"
- 239 Words
- 644 Views
- 6 Comments
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34.
"It's now our eyes glaze over like bright water"
- 236 Words
- 1,187 Views
- 9 Comments
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35.
"While leaning against the hospital railing"
- 227 Words
- 649 Views
- 7 Comments
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36.
"I still envision flares rising steeply"
- 235 Words
- 656 Views
- 3 Comments
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37.
"The wheels turn, the factory's iron-echo"
- 220 Words
- 456 Views
- 3 Comments
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38.
"The one blazed before my eyes like a flame"
- 234 Words
- 548 Views
- 5 Comments
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