from Vol. 1, Num. 1, Winter 1992
An meinen gefallen Bruder
by Wolfgang Moeller
Translated by Patrick Hinchy, Manager of the 1991 TGWS Battlefield Tour
First read by Patrick at Langemarck German Cemetery, Ypres Salient,
September 19, 1991.
To My Brother Killed in Battle
What are you now? A pear tree or a beech tree,
A birch grove or a little ivy leaf?
My brother, I am looking for you, looking
For what it is that God has changed you to.
Is your spirit present in some form?
Is it a living form or inanimate?
I will love it in whatever form I find it.
Even in stone, it will seem familiar to me.
Perhaps a blade of grass, some lilac blossom.
Whatever you are now, I'll ask the sun
To make completely golden with his fire
You, through every being which resembles you.
I'll have compassion on the little beetle
That struggles upwards out of your grave.
I'll embrace the wooden cross and the sand on it,
And bless the bird that sings above it.
But if you're now a thought, and if in thinking it,
I could transcend the limits of the earth,
Then I would want to immerse myself in it so deeply
That I found you once again in God's presence.
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