Microblog Memes

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speak out now (lemmy.ml)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 5 days ago (2 children)

That's not the original.
Hint: any version that doesn't mention "communists" is "filtered".

[–] [email protected] 38 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Good call, I didn't know that. This is the original

Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen,
ich war ja kein Kommunist.

Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen,
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.

Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich geschwiegen,
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.

Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr,
der protestieren konnte.

It's not straight forward to translate, because there is no active verb in English for "to remain silent".

When the Nazis came and took the communists 
I remained silent
Since I wasn't a communist.

When they imprisoned the social democrats 
I remained silent
Since I wasn't a social democrat.

When they took the trade unionists 
I remained silent
Since I wasn't a trade unionist.

When they took me
There was no one left
Who could protest.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

And the poem doesn't mention the disabled, who died first.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Does "I chose silence" work?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Good idea, but I think "remain silent" applies a bit more generally. The phrase "you have the right to remain silent" is always translated to "sie haben das Recht zu schweigen". So I went with that.

("schweigen" being the verb I'm looking for here)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

I think I'd say 'I kept silent' as more common or 'I kept quiet', probably an even more common phrase. 'Kept' would be slightly more 'active' than remained I think.

But "remain" does some nice extra poetic work here; it foreshadows another usage of [narrator's] "remains" - the corpse or ashes or whatever lifeless material is left after their death.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Good point. I forgot about the communist part and only copied the first one on wiki due to laziness. Thanks for reminding me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

Which already tells you too much about Wikipedia.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

Wikipedia is not an entity, it's a collective. You, personally, can fix whatever is incorrect there. And some would say, should.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

that the best we've got is still not good?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

Not that I love wiki or anything, but in their defense, the translated original is below the one I copied. Only separated by a sentence or two. I didn't read them out of laziness, so that's on me.