Don't ask
The poem Man ask not by the Austrian writer Karl Kraus appeared in October 1933 in the 888th edition of the magazine Die Fackel, which he edited . The text, to be understood as a reaction to the transfer of power to the National Socialists in the German Reich, received a number of literary responses, for example from Wieland Herzfelde and Bertolt Brecht .
Kraus published the poem instead of a more extensive work, the Third Walpurgis Night , which contained harsh criticism of National Socialism. The torch appeared that year with only one four-page edition containing the poem.
The manuscript of the poem contains a dedication by Kraus to Sidonie Nádherná von Borutín, who has spoken to him for many years . It is unclear whether it should be understood as directed primarily at them.
text
- You don't ask what I was doing all this time.
- I remain mute;
- and don't say why.
- And there is silence as the earth crashed.
- Not a word that met;
- one speaks only from sleep.
- And dreams of a sun that laughed.
- It passes;
- afterwards it didn't matter.
- The word fell asleep when that world awoke.
Reactions
Numerous polemic reactions to the poem can be found in contemporary anti-fascist exile magazines.
The poem provoked two grave speeches for Karl Kraus (1933), in which Wieland Herzfelde accused the poet of fleeing.
In 1933 Bertolt Brecht wrote a poem about the "meaning" of this Kraus' poem, which the author initially tried to defend:
- When the eloquent apologized
- That his voice should fail
- The silence came before the judges' table
- Took the handkerchief from his face and
- Identified himself as a witness.
In 1934 Brecht once again referred to Man ask not in the poem On the Fast Fall of the Good Ignorant . In it, he finally announced his friendship with Kraus after his support for the suppression of the February uprising :
- When we excused the eloquent about his silence
- passed between the writing of the praise and its arrival
- a little time. In that he spoke.
In Torch No. 889, which appeared in 1934, a direct statement appeared on the publication of the poem.
In the Third Reich, Kraus' work was put on the " list of harmful and undesirable literature ".
effect
The anthological standard work Epochen deutscher Lyrik by Walther Killy sees the Kraus poem as an example of German poetry from 1933 onwards and also reflects the reactions of other poets.
The poem is often interpreted by interpreters as the inability of the poet to take a position on National Socialism. Kraus, on the other hand, gave the main reason for his silence the consideration for third parties in his environment, whose lives he saw in danger from the Nazi-provocative publications: that he “regards the most painful renunciation of the literary effect less than the tragic victim of the poorest anonymous lost human life ” , he said at the end of July 1934. The Third Walpurgis Night , which Kraus had held back and in the place of which he had not published Man question , only appeared posthumously after 1945.
Single receipts
- ↑ Why the torch does not appear , in: Die Fackel No. 890–905, end of July 1934, p. 10.
- ↑ Volume 9 (Poems), p. 639. Cf. Die Fackel No. 888, October 1933, p. 4.
- ^ Schick, Karl Kraus, p. 129; s. a. Bert Brecht: "On the meaning of the ten-line poem in the 888th number of the torch" ( Memento from September 20, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (October 1933)
- ↑ Why the torch does not appear , in: Die Fackel No. 890–905, end of July 1934, p. 10.