Erich Fried, Not Thinking of El Salvador

The following poem in the current translation series needs no comment.

Not Thinking of El Salvador

Nothing's more moving
than our people
clinging to their small pleasures and hopes
the next holiday
the weekend trip the evening
at the theatre and in
the Chinese Restaurant

between worries
about the better school
for the youngest child
and between the visits to the sick
between the television programmes
and the casual affairs
between middle age
and the old-aged home

Nothing is so moving
and not anything over there
on the other side of the world
the people perishing
from the hunger murder and blindness
that our people made possible
so that they can cling to their small pleasures and hopes
so often like me

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translated from Zur Zeit und zur Unzeit (Wagenbach)
gw 2009