----> A translation and musical adaptation of

❤Bertolt Brecht’s poem “Fragen eines lesenden Arbeiters"❤

(The poem was written in 1935 during his exile in Denmark.)

Who built Thebes with its seven gates?

The names of kings are written in the books.

Did the kings drag the boulders here?

And Babylon, destroyed many times, who rebuilt it so many times?

In which houses of golden Lima did the builders live?

Where did the masons go on the evening the Great Wall of China was finished?

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

Over whom did the Caesars triumph?

Did the much-praised Byzantium have only palaces for its inhabitants?

Even in legendary Atlantis, the drowning people

roared for their slaves in the night the sea swallowed it.

Young Alexander conquered India. He alone?

Caesar defeated the Gauls.

Didn't he at least have a cook with him?

Philip of Spain wept when his fleet sank. Did no one else weep?

Frederick II was victorious in the Seven Years' War.

Who won besides him?

Each side a victory.

Who cooks the victory feast?

A great man every ten years.

Who paid the expenses?

So many reports,

So many questions.