"Was he the only one to weep?"

[minoanmiss]

Quoted in a discussion of history.

Questions From a Worker Who Reads

Who built Thebes of the 7 gates?
In the books you will read the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?

And Babylon, many times demolished,
Who raised it up so many times?

In what houses of gold glittering Lima did its builders live?
Where, the evening that the Great Wall of China was finished, did the masons go?

Great Rome is full of triumphal arches.
Who erected them?

Over whom did the Caesars triumph?
Had Byzantium, much praised in song, only palaces for its inhabitants?

Even in fabled Atlantis, the night that the ocean engulfed it,
The drowning still cried out for their slaves.

The young Alexander conquered India.
Was he alone?

Caesar defeated the Gauls.
Did he not even have a cook with him?

Philip of Spain wept when his armada went down.
Was he the only one to weep?

Frederick the 2nd won the 7 Years War.
Who else won it?

Every page a victory.
Who cooked the feast for the victors?

Every 10 years a great man.
Who paid the bill?

So many reports.

So many questions.

Bertolt Brecht, 1935

https://www.marxists.org/subject/art/literature/brecht/

Comments

[ljwrites]

This is a serious problem with historical records and writing both--and one exacerbates the other, of course. History is written by the victors and also by the upper crust (who are victors of another type). The royalties and the luminaries speak in written records through the ages, but we can only glean the details of working class, serf, and slave lives through archeology and the occasional glancing mention, if that.

[corylea]

Excellent points!

[sabotabby]

Brecht rules.

Of course, the answer to many of these questions is "buried under the foundations," but he obviously meant it rhetorically.

[ilyena_sylph]

This is wonderful stuff.

[kore]

This is fantastic. Yes.

[hitchhiker]

love that!

[cjsmith]

I'm impressed.

[acelightning]

Who cooked the feast for the victors?

In addition to the invisibility of the working man, there's the invisibility of the working woman. Who wove the fabric for the soldier's tunic and the stonecutter's loincloth? Who polished the glittering gold walls of Lima? Who kept the kings' goblets filled with wine while they feasted? Who were the mothers of the slaves and soldiers and laborers?

[amaebi]

Thanks.

A Few Passing Thoughts, In More Than One Vein

[annonynous.livejournal.com]

"In what houses of gold glittering Lima did its builders live?"
Isn't Lima in Bean Town?

"Great Rome is full of triumphal arches.
Who erected them?"
The enslaved members of the defeated peoples?

Move along. Move along. Nothing more to see here.
Ann O. (grinning and ducking)

[cmcmck]

This is why Brecht was a genius! :o)