“To a simple man”, Julian Tuwim’s text sounds as if it was written now

 

A poem that was written in 1929 but is relevant today. It is a Julian Tuwim‘s poem “To a simple man”. The work was first published in the Warsaw daily “Robotnik” (“Worker”) on October 27, 1929. At the beginning of the poem, the following words appear: ”

And every goon, and every foolish swine,

Takes this everlasting lie as true:

That one must go and by cannon rip asunder,

Murder, poison, burn and plunder;

Tuwim’s text is a pacifist cry for the end of the fight – “To a simple man” is called one of the most famous Polish anti-war manifestos.

The poet points out that conflict-provoking aggressors talk about ideals, but they mean something completely different. He writes: “Know that this is a bastard, an ordinary band, / When they say:» Arms on the shoulder! «, / That oil from the ground somewhere has pissed them off / And it gave them dollars.”

 

“To the Simple Man” by Julian Tuwim

When again to walls with dripping glue,
They start to paste their signs,
When to dear people and dear soldiers too,
The ink blast-blackens through,
And every goon, and every foolish swine,
Takes this everlasting lie as true:
That one must go and by cannon rip asunder,
Murder, poison, burn and plunder;
When in the thousandth way they charm,
“Homeland, harm”—and by this sleight
of-hand delude with coat-of-arms,
And incite by reason of “historical right”,
The power, the glory, the frontiers,
Of our fathers, forefathers and their banners,
Of heroes and martyrs;
When the bishop, priest and rabbi,
All emerge to bless your rifle to the skies,
Because they themselves have heard God say,
For the homeland all must fight today;
When the cadaverous screech of vulgarized
front-page paper headlines rings,
And herds of wild women canonize
—with flowers—our brave little soldierlings:
“But, my dear unlearn’ed friend,
My brother from this or other worlds!
Know that they beat their drums with dread,
These kings with fat lords;
Know that it’s a sham, a common ruse,
When they command you: “Shoulder arms!”,
For somewhere deep their oil’s begun to ooze,
Yielding a harvest of dollars;
That banks aren’t quite to their liking—that
they’ve sniffed out cash in places easier to access,
Or else set-sights, these fattest cats,
On even fatter taxes.
Thresh the streets with bullets until you free the soil,
The blood is yours, the oil theirs!
And from capital to capital
call out, defending your blood, sweat and toil:
‘Screw you—it’s us, you noble heirs!’”

 

Timeless text by Julian Tuwim, great musical interpretation of the “Akurat” band.

Julian Tuwim, already in the twentieth century, clearly and firmly opposed the realities of the world plunged into war. He believed that human life was too valuable to sacrifice for honorable slogans, which in fact only conceal the interests of the rulers.