BRECHT'S POETRY
Der Einzelne hat zwei Augen
Die Partei hat tausend Augen.
Die Partei sieht sieben Staaten
Der Einzelne sieht eine Stadt.
Der Einzelne hat seine Stunde
Aber die Partei hat viele Stunden.
Der Einzelne kann vemichtet werden
Aber die Partei kann nicht vemichtet werden
Denn sie ist der Vortrupp der Massen
Und fiihrt ihren Kampf
Mit den Methoden der Klassiker, welche geschOpft sind
Aus der Kenntnis der Wirklichkeit.
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(The Individual has two eyes The Party has a thousand eyes. The Party
sees seven states The Individual sees one city. The Individual has his
hour · But the Party has many hours. The Individual can he destroyed
But the Party cannot he destroyed. For it is the vanguard of the masses
And conducts its struggle with the methods of the classical teachers, which
are derived From the knowledge of actuality.)
Brecht had become so inveterate a parodist that he could not
prevent himself from parodying even the Bible in his political
poetry-although there may be the influence of Stalin's painfully
simplified, catechism style of oratory. However, more than parody
is involved. The same protestantism that Brecht showed when he
was a cynic manifested itself in his adherence to Marxism. Lenin's
precepts became for him an eternal standard of conduct, and
Bolshevism a way of life and a habit of virtue rather than a his–
torically determined line of action intended to realize a definite
goal. The didactic pieces, the little playlets, the dialogues, aphor–
isms, even the Lindbergh radio choral, contained in the
Lehr–
bilcher
or Textbooks form a morality literature, hornbooks of
Bolshevik piety, Imitations of Lenin. And for all his sobriety, for
all the strenuous simplicity and earnestness and angularity of his
manner, Brecht remained all poet-in the old-fashioned sense
which he tried to repudiate--and when he put Lenin's precepts
into poetry he transformed them into parables and their settings
into mythology. Whether or not this made Brecht a successful revo–
lutionary poet cannot be discussed here, but it was certainly in
harmony with the particular style of devotion which Stalinism
instils in its faithful.
