WWI American
Immigrant Poetry
IN the council of nations we silent remained,
Once and twice and again.
We stood aside and their tricks disdained—
Once and twice and again.
We never hurried, we never rushed
When the earth was divided; then
We heard the others greedily cry;
WE WANTED PEACE—and we stood by—
Twice and thrice and again.
And yet, they never gave us a rest
Never and never again;
And envied our bounty with jealous breast
Once and twice and again.
With jeers and jibes, they poisoned our lives,
They sharpened their swords and they whetted their knives;
To slander the Germans they never stop.
WE WANTED PEACE—and we shut up
Once and twice and again.
For years they played their wanton game
More and more again,
Till the morning dawned when the reckoning came,
Once and never again.
Till the earth was sick with their brazen lies,
Till the stench of their misdeeds sullied the skies,
Till the German said: “Now be it enough!
I’ll suffer no longer the lies and the scoff
Never and never again.”
And up he went like a lightning ray,
Anxious to settle the score;
And he saw the enemy in great array—
One and many more.
Saw the enemy East and the enemy West
The French and the Russian breast to breast.
The Serb to the rear, the Belgian afore
And the lying Britain, as of yore
Still others and many more.
With Sengalese Negroes, oh shameful time!
The Frenchman supports his troops.
With the desert’s outcasts, the earth’s slime
With them and others to boot;
And out of Britannia’s gigantic lap
Forth come the Negro, the Hindu, the Jap;
And as the English bagpipes play
Five hundred million slaves will prey
Upon one and crave for the loot.
The enemy’s jeers and the coward’s prod
Resound from mountain to plain;
And the German prays: “Now help me God,
Once, but once again.‘’
And his fist came down with a mighty stroke
Till the Belgians’ stubborn resistance broke,
Till the newborn day the Frenchman found
With trembling knees embracing the ground.
Well done, once more and again.
Tremble, ye Britain! The German hits
And the German hits to the core.
Like a typhoon strong his stainless sword
Smote once and again and more.
Tremble, ye Russians! and be aware
The time has come for our score to square;
And the broth you were brewing for us of late
You will swallow and we will hold the plate,
Once and again and more.
A sound re-echoes throughout the world
Such as never was heard before.
When the German strikes, the enemy is hurled
To the ground, ‘midst the cannon’s roar.
Quiet listens the world and out of breath
For this fight is a fight for life or death;
And when the final reckoning is done
The Germans will have their place in the sun,
Victorious, as ever before!
(Translated for The Fatherland by Simon Lieban.)